dana 30 drum to disc swap

[huntnducks]

76 cj5
drum brakes shot and leaking

my plan is to remove my front dana30 and replace it with a late 70's model dana 30 with disc brakes .


any suggestions, looking for pro's and con's

[RangerRick]

Rear Discs on AMC 20's

For the rear:

There are a lot of writeups on this one and a low budget is to use Zuk Samurai front rotors, late 80's Z car calipers & fabricate your own bracket or buy them on ebytes, pirate or any of the other sites that sell em using 3 of the 4 backing plate retainer holes. A new proportioning valve should be used or you could use an adjustable on the rear. Cut away all the drum brake backing plate material except what fits directly over the axle tube flange as the bearing retainer. Make or use longer caliper parking brake lines and bob's your uncle.... Disc brakes for less than $250 bucks (if you're using new rotors, pads, rebuilt calipers, new parking brake lines & new rubber brake hoses from a Z car that thread right into the hard line at least on CJ-7's). Ghetto junkyard poor mans disc brakes!!!

For the front:

Id get the front axle out of a 76-79 disc with 6 lug hubs and robb/swap all the brake stuff and stubs over, if you cannot find a 76+, then find an 80+ with 5 bolt and you can convert by buying new 6 bolt inner hubs & re-using your 6 bolt Warn/Superwinch outer hubs or get new ones to match. If budget is real tight, leave the 5 bolt hubs for now. Id also run the "wide track" (82-86 CJ7/8) axles if you can swing it as it will add significant stability and bolt right under and with the steering still attached, no mods whatsoever. One note is that Jeep went to a 2 bolt caliper in early 80 sometime so be aware and match all the parts right the first time. The rotor changed thickness in about the same era. Other than these, if you grab all the rotors, outer knuckles, stubs and calipers off the same vehicle, you should be good to go.

Sometimes you can get real lucky and find someone with 1982-86 wide track axles front and rear complete for sale for everything around $300 give or take seems to be the going rate for stockers. Snag a full set, re-use your lockers & deep gears outa your current D30/M20 axles and your disc brakes woes are over. Plus as mentioned above, get the added bonus of the wide track stability. Options..... Point is you have lots of options.

Rick

[Shadly1]

If you already have a D30 in front, I don't see why you couldn't slap on some junkyard D30 disc brake knuckles, calipers and rotors. You might have an easier time doing that than finding a D30 with the right spring perches. Don't forget to add the proportioning valve.