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XJ Dana 44 Ford Explorer Disc Conversion

hmm.

I'm worried about cooling on the brakes more than anything, because the rotor doesn't have any vents in it. I've got an auto, and no longer have to pass inspection, so e-brakes aren't too big of a deal for me. worse come to worse, I cut most of the dust shield off and leave the spaces where the e-brakes mount to.

I just don't like the scraping a chalkboard noise when driving with rocks in the brakes.
 
ive been running these brakes for almost a year and have had no problems with heat at all. i also have not had problems with anything in the dust sheilds either. and no matter were i wheel there is always mud...ALWAYS!!!

but you could cut most of the sheild away and still have the center for the e-brake. this may allow rocks and crap to enter the e-brake area as well as the axle seal area. the sheild wraps around the rotor to help pevent this. its not just behind the rotor.
 
Latest update and this is regarding the prop valve. My XJ is a 91 and came with the crap ABS. So one of the first upgrades I did was a 95/96 dual diaphram booster/mc.

All the MC's on the chrysler era XJ's are 1" same as ZJ, and WJ, so it would make sense that the change for rear disc is in the prop valve. Internally the prop valves are basically the same, externally, it would require bending lines/switching fittings to put a ZJ prop valve into an XJ. So I took the easy way out, and swapped the spring out with the spring from a disc brake ZJ prop valve. Be sure to hold the body of the prop valve with a wrench, and put a rag underneath it to catch the little bit of brake fluid that comes out. The spring is underneath the cap/bleeder on the end of the prop valve. Pull the cap, swap the springs and bleed it from the cap. Done. You will notice a considerable improvement in braking, without prematurely locking up the rears.
 
ive been running these brakes for almost a year and have had no problems with heat at all. i also have not had problems with anything in the dust sheilds either. and no matter were i wheel there is always mud...ALWAYS!!!

but you could cut most of the sheild away and still have the center for the e-brake. this may allow rocks and crap to enter the e-brake area as well as the axle seal area. the sheild wraps around the rotor to help pevent this. its not just behind the rotor.

Why remove the shield? They'll only get hot if you mis-adjust your ebrake.
 
Why remove the shield?

good question,
a better question. is, has anyone cut the shield away yet? can it be done cleanly?

picked up some explorer brakes for a friends d44, and i became VERY annoyed when i found out the dust shield is pretty much gotta stay....


the caliper is also TINY compared to the crown vic calipers..... so far... i gotta say the crown vic seems like a better swap...
 
is the crown vic a more complicated swap in anyway, or are they essentially the same as far as difficulty is concerned?
 
Also forgot to ask earlier... I will be running a 5 on 5.5 pattern...does anyone know if I have multiple options? I was considering ordering the teraflex rotors which have the dual pattern, but I thought I may have luck asking if anyone knew of an OEM rotor fitting this application that I could use instead to save a few bucks...TIA
 
the crown vic has problems, the biggest is the backing plates on the axle shafts, according to markw, and the beggining of this post, he has found a way around switching over to the rubicon retainer plates by using the teraflex spacer.... i will be trying this shortly on a crown vic setup... Everything besides the retainer plates is cake walk, opening up holes in the rotor, and the actual brake backing plate (the thing that holds the ebrake), nothing difficult... you also gotta clearance the axle housing ends, to mate up clean to the brake backing plates. everything is pretty much obvious, no surprises, you'll see what needs to be ground where.

i will be trying a hybrid of both markw's writeup , and the jeepin.com article, hope to get the best of both worlds, as having those bearings pressed off and then back on over the new rubi plate was the biggest fuss.

i used this writeup http://www.jeepin.com/features/cvdiscs/
 
good question,
a better question. is, has anyone cut the shield away yet? can it be done cleanly?

picked up some explorer brakes for a friends d44, and i became VERY annoyed when i found out the dust shield is pretty much gotta stay....


the caliper is also TINY compared to the crown vic calipers..... so far... i gotta say the crown vic seems like a better swap...

i decided to do w/o the ebrake and add line locks for the parking brake so i removed the dust cover. it came of cleanly you just have to drill out the little spot welds that hold it on.
 
i decided to do w/o the ebrake and add line locks for the parking brake so i removed the dust cover. it came of cleanly you just have to drill out the little spot welds that hold it on.


on the CV or explorer?
if its on the explorer, did you just junk the entire ebrake mechanism except for the pads? it seems sketchy to me... those little arms peices seemed dangerous to remove...
on the cv stuff, it is ZERO problem....
 
it was on the explorer and i junked the entire e-brake assembly including the pads. it just looks like a caliper bracket. i see no real reason for me to keep messing with the ebrake when i have an auto and dont really need it anyway
 
a little bit off-topic, but my friend wants to make a disc conversion on a TJ with D44 and rear drums. It is a 2004 TJ, with ABS.

We allready played with the disc brake conversion kit from Crown, or ZJ backing plates.

There is no room for a drum version of ABS pickup. Tried to use a ZJ disc ABS pickup, but it looks like the ABS tone ring on a drum d44 shaft is smaller than on a disc version so there is too much space in between.


Anyone solved the ABS problem? He insists on having an ABS :dunno:
 
from what I read, with the crown vic conversion you have to run aftermarket wheels. Will factory wheels work with the explorer setup?
 
doesn't matter, I just picked a random year and they fit great...fwiw I think I said like 97...drilled them out for 5 on 5.5, I think they came out nice :)

0507091813.jpg
 
i dont want to read all through the pages but today i saw how the explorer's rear brakes looks, they're freak small! you probably can try to use S-10 or S-10 Blazer (98' and newer to 05') because they're twice the size of the explorer's caliper and their rotor is vented while the explorer's isnt too
 
this prop valve is the one on the rear axle that equates pressure from side to side correct? I don't have the dual diaphragm booster from the 95-96, will the discs still net better braking? and how has everyone connected the hard lines to the soft lines? do they just screw on? brakes are a new endeavorer, any suggestions help... what kind of soft lines are everyone using?
 
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