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Big brake Dana 30?

cheapcherokee93

cheapcherokee93

<----boat-manche
Location
Guadalahabra, CA
My friend is swapping in a Dana 30 with an ARB from an 87 XJ (but it's a non disco so I suspect it came from a different year). So he decided to reuse the calipers from it since he wanted it all together. Well in the swap one of them got lost so he tried reusing the ones that came on his 97. Well it appears that the mounting holes on the donor axle are farther apart than the calipers are, which indicates that the brakes are indeed bigger. I was unaware that there were any big brake options for the D30, so finding a replacement has been hard so far. We know it's a factory part because the other caliper reads an AMC part #. my question to you guys is, do you know of any factory big brake options, and what they came on so that we can find a donor?
 
Thats really weird. As far as I know all D30's (after 1986 at least) have the same front brakes. The only ones with bigger brakes are WJ D30's but those also have high-steer.
 
OK. There are some differences in the mounting/calipers/unit bearings and rotors.

What you need to make it work:
The brackets from the 97 that mount the caliper to the knuckle. The knuckle itself did not change, so they will bolt up, but you cannot bolt the later calipers to the early mounting bracket.

At this point you have a choice. You can run the 87 unit bearings and rotors with the 97 brackets/calipers/pads, or he can swap the unit bearings/rotors from his 97. Honestly the 97 axle probably has bigger/better u-joints unless the ARB locked one has been upgraded. I would consider swapping the unit bearings and axle shafts as a unit, and then bring the 97 brakes over.

The bottom line is this:
the rotors must match the unit bearings or they will bind against the caliper bracket. and as long as the caliper matches the bracket it will bolt up and work, use the pads that match the caliper year. At least that's what I found out, my old D30 was a mixture of 87/89/97 parts.
 
Last edited:
well i just remembered something that might make a difference. the 97 XJ is an ABS, so the caliper bracket is built in to the knuckle. so the only way to transfer the brackets would be to swap in the whole knuckle and ABS shafts. and as i said before we arent sure of the year of the donor 30 because its a non disco and it came out of an 87, so it could have been swapped in and possibly have the bigger U joints already.
 
I would imagine that if someone went through the trouble of installing an ARB that it has the larger shafts.
You'll have to take measurement sof the caps to be sure.

A knuckle swap might be the ticket, then he gets the housing with the gear setup, and gets to keep his year matching outers/brakes. Makes going to the parts store way easier, and he can keep the ABS if he's into that sort of thing.

I'd get some new ball joints, pull the unit bearing and shafts as an assembly, swap the knuckles with new joints, reinstall hubs/shafts. Might as well do the ball joints if the donor D30 is unknown age/maintenance.
Seems like the easiest way to get from here to there.
 
There is a bit of misinformation here...

The Chrysler era knuckles I have seen have no caliper bracket, it is always cast into the knuckle itself, ABS or not. I'm not sure if there is a difference early 90s to late 90s but I have never seen one. There is a difference in the unit bearings and rotors 99.5-01 vs 99-down but that's about it.
 
kastein said:
There is a bit of misinformation here...

The Chrysler era knuckles I have seen have no caliper bracket, it is always cast into the knuckle itself, ABS or not. I'm not sure if there is a difference early 90s to late 90s but I have never seen one. There is a difference in the unit bearings and rotors 99.5-01 vs 99-down but that's about it.
Click to expand...

that might be possible.
I know that the calipers use different bolts, but I think until 97 they were interchangeable.

anyway, knuckle swap fixes all the problems.
 
I put the axle out of a '98 from the junkyard into a '92 with no bolt-up issues, we used the original rotors and calipers and bolted them right to the knuckles on the new axle. I know the bolt thread is M8x1.25 or M8x1.5 on a 92, 96, and 98, and that it's also the same on 4x4 91s but 2x4 91s had the goofy older spindle style and allen key caliper slides still. That's about the extent of the info I have...
 
kastein said:
I put the axle out of a '98 from the junkyard into a '92 with no bolt-up issues, we used the original rotors and calipers and bolted them right to the knuckles on the new axle. I know the bolt thread is M8x1.25 or M8x1.5 on a 92, 96, and 98, and that it's also the same on 4x4 91s but 2x4 91s had the goofy older spindle style and allen key caliper slides still. That's about the extent of the info I have...
Click to expand...

everything AMC had the internal allen head slides.

I never found out if the 91-96 calipers would bolt up to the Renix brackets.
I ca nsay that 91 calipers with the external slide hex heads use the same banjo bolt as the early allen head style calipers, because I just swaped them and they bolted right up to my brake line.

the old d30 laying in my driveway has a mixture of Renix calipers/pads/knuckle, but had late model composite rotors and hubs. If you use a rotor that doesn't match the hubs when you put the wheel on and tighten the lug nuts the rotor hits the caliper bracket.

good times at the parts counter trying to explain why I need to look at 3 different year rotors with my calipers.
 
Yeah, the guys at my local AZ gave up... they just turn the monitor and push the keyboard over to me and say to get them when I need to look at actual parts now.
 
kastein said:
Yeah, the guys at my local AZ gave up... they just turn the monitor and push the keyboard over to me and say to get them when I need to look at actual parts now.
Click to expand...

I show up with a big list of part numbers from the website and just hand it to them.
 
well guys it looks like we are just going to do the knuckle swap. we really wanted to find that mounting bracket but it seems that it'd just be easier to swap knuckles than hunt down an odd bracket that we probably cant find. now this brings on another question, can regular shafts (non ABS) be used on ABS knuckles? my friend will not be re hooking up ABS so it really doesnt matter but we figure if we dont have to swap in the axles that one less thing to do.

and thanks for all your help btw!
 
Yes. ABS shafts are simply a 297-joint sized stock shaft (standard equipment on 95 and later) with a tone ring pressed on. Bolt em in and go.
 
sweet, thanks! also, doubt this could be it but is it possible that maybe the PO put on brakes/knuckles from an earlier AMC dana 30 equipped vehicle?

here's a comparison pic of the 2 calipers

IMG_0635.jpg
 
Hammer on the side of it perpendicular to the balljoint studs. Don't hit the threads or you'll never get the nut back on. A 3lb hand sledge works great.
 
kastein said:
There is a bit of misinformation here...

The Chrysler era knuckles I have seen have no caliper bracket, it is always cast into the knuckle itself, ABS or not. I'm not sure if there is a difference early 90s to late 90s but I have never seen one. There is a difference in the unit bearings and rotors 99.5-01 vs 99-down but that's about it.
Click to expand...


I just swapped in a 90 D30 into my 01... The 01 brake pads would not fit in the 90 knuckle. I did not try bolting up the caliper without the pads in it to see if the caliper mount holes lined up.
I ended up knocking off my 01 knuckles and installing them on the older D30.

The newer knuckles were one cast piece as to where the 90 model was 2 piece with the caliper mount being bolted to it.

 
yup, no disagreement with that. By Chrysler era I mean 91 up (I consider anything RENIX to be AMC era.)
 
I do not know if this will be any help, but I have a 90 Cherokee I am doing a complete rebuild on, i also have an 88 as my daily driver. The knuckles are different, the 90 has the same knuckles as the YJs. Also the hub is a lot bigger on the 90. I just did my balljoints in the 88 broke an axleshaft bolt in the hub and placed hubs since my trail spare u-joint was complete junk, anyway I could not get the rotor back on because the 88 has a smaller hat on the rotor, so I put a YJ rotor on, press the pads out with a clamp to fit onto the rotor and bolted it up, it all works fine.
 
Picture of the two steering Knuckles

We finally decided to change out the steering knuckles so we could use the more common calipers.

On the left is the newer version and the right the odd one.

IMG_0637.jpg


IMG_0636.jpg


Thanks,
Fred
Explorer 1
 
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