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Rear brakes - convert from drum to disk?

Kreutz

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Chicago, IL
I was just wondering, what are the advantages, if any, are there for converting the rear (drum) brakes to discs? Just courious, thanks.
 
No need for adjustment, less complicated, self cleaning, and the ever important bling factor.
 
discs have better stopping power, don't get as hot, easeir to work on (replace pads), and are bling-tastic (says the man with 90% of the parts he needs for the swap in his basement)

edit: Damn you Lawn Cher!
 
not hard depending on the axle, D35:easy, 8.25:little more difficult but not much, D44:harder. Search, search, search, there is tons of info out there. If you want to keep ABS (like I do) it makes it more difficult but not impossible
 
Not to sound like an ass, but have you tried a search yet? I know I've seen it covered here a few times - the conversion I'm trying to recall is using ZJ D44 rear brakes, going onto an XJ D35 (non-C-clip) or D44. (The C-clip axle lacks the retainer plate used with the non-C, so the caliper and bracket have nothing to bolt to.)

If you can handle a FULL brake service (read: Take it all to bits and put it back together correctly) you shouldn't have too much trouble with the job - all the writeups I've read on it are pretty good. The only thing that's stopped me from doing it are a dearth of parts (I've got two 89's that will likely be keeping their "retainer-plate" D35's, and I'd like to do the four-wheel disk setup.)

Advantages? Disk brakes cool faster, are self-adjusting, and effectively self-cleaning. They are much quicker to service (I can do pads in about 20 minutes if I'm in a huge hurry - less than an hour taking my time. Drum brakes start at an hour - all those damn springs...) Of course, you will want to either record all necessary part numbers, or note the vehicle which donated the parts for your conversion.

What do you need to grab?
Calipers, brackets, and backing plates - everything behind the wheel.
Grab hoses and e-brake cable for comparison purposes, if you can.
Master cylinder and brake booster (get the pushrod as well.)
Anything else you THINK you might need - and any other spare parts you can grab (I'm assuming you have one shot to get everything - be greedy!)

I shan't go into detail on the conversion - it's been done well enough before I got involved that I don't think it's necessary. Check around - if it's not been done here (at least six times!) start with Gojeep's site, or probably madxj.com. I don't think Dr. Dyno's covered it yet, but my memory isn't what it once was (God bless notebooks!)

Would I do it? Like I said, the only thing stopping me now is a lack of parts. If I had everything here, it would have been done a long time ago!

5-90
 
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