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Figured I would post up the brake conversionI did to my 79 ford front dana 60.
I will start out saying the stock brakes on this axle suck. When they were brand new they probably worked ok. But the design is extreemly outdated and all the parts have around 35 years worth of rust and wear. I remember growing up my dad had a 78 F250 he towed with. It had a HD dana 44 front but it used the same brakes. I always remember when he would change the front brakes, the inner pad would be worn down to nothing, and the outer pad would still be half or more. No matter how much he cleaned, sanded, and greased the sliding surfaces, they would always do this.

So fast forward to now. I have been rebuilding my front dana 60 and I do not want the original brakes. There is pretty much nothing out there in the way of brake upgrades for this axle. Only thing I can find is brackets that let you bolt on the small half ton chevy calipers to run 15in wheels. I definately do not want that! These rigs are big, heavy and usally have large offroad tires. If anything, brakes should be bigger!
Here were the stock brake caliper sliding surfaces on my front dana 60:








As you can see, pretty cruddy. Not what I want stopping my Jeep.
Not only did I want some bigger/better/newer calipers, I wanted rotors to match. I really wanted the new rotors to slip over the hubs like modern axles. I hate having to remove wheel bearings to get a rotor off.
So I promptly tossed the stock rotors, calipers, and brackets in the scrap heap. I start my hunt for new calipers. After much searching and measuring, I settle on calipers from a 03 chevy 2500HD. These are big, beefy, and modern calipers. They have dual 57mm pistons. Stock ford was 56mm pistons.
No pictures of them side my side (cause I tossed the stock ones) but here is a picture of them next to a cold drink to give you somthing to go by.




OK, now to find some rotors. I had to match the thickness to the calipers, the bolt pattern to the hubs, make sure they were the type that slip over the hubs and be spaced right. After going over measurements online, I decided to try the rotors from the same truck the calipers came from. 03 chevy 2500HD. Stock ford rotors are roughly 12.5in dia and 1.25 thick. The chevy rotor is roughly 12.75 dia and a beefy 1.5in thick.
I order up the cheapest rotor on rockauto so I can test/mockup things. Initial measurements look good, but I need to machine the hubs to fit the rotors, as the ford hubs are too large to let the rotor slip over it. Well the bolt patterns are the same, so there should be plenty of dia I can machine off to make them fit.

Another thing I wanted to do at the same time as this conversion, is convert it to use 9/16 wheel studs. (stock is 1/2) I am using a late model disc brake rear dana 60 and it has 9/16 wheel studs, so I wanted the front to match. The holes in the hubs are too small. But I luck out at the local pull a part junkyard and find a early 90's ford with a TTB dana 50, which uses the exact same wheel hub, except it has 9/16 wheel studs.
I disassemble and clean the wheel hubs and chuck one up in my lathe.



I do not have any calipers big enough to measure exactly how much I took off, but I just shaved a little at a time untill it was a slip fit. I also had to shave a little off the center next to the old wheel mounting surface to clear the center hole in the chevy rotor. I wanted the do all the mods to the hub and not the rotors. That way, in the future if/when I need new rotors, I wont have to machine them.
Here is a finish machined hub next to a unmachined hub. You can see the shiney metal where I had to take metal off.



So now that the rotor will now slip over the hub, I bolt it on a hub, install some bearings and then install a spindle. I then flip it over on the workbench so the spindle faces up. I test fit the caliper but the caliper bracket hits the spindle. I mark and grind it to clear. I gets a little thin in one spot, so I added a few layers of weld to add some metal back.

Stock and then clearanced caliper bracket:






Since the ford dana 60, the caliper mounting bracket goes between the knuckle and the spindle, it should be easy to measure/make a new caliper mounting bracket. I measured the original ford mounting bracket and it with the dust shield measured out to roughly 1/2in. So, cut a new bracket out of 1/2 steel plate. I use some 1/2in thick wood panel to make some prototypes and make adjustments. The brackets will be a main plate, whe two smaller plates bolted to it with the caliper mounted to them.
I measure everything out and then design them in 3D with a free program I got online called sketchup. Once designed, I had them converted to a file that a local laser cutting company could read, and had them laser cut out of 1/2 steel plate:



I couldnt quite get the final holes for the calipers measured, so I drilled them after finishing the brackets. Same with the spindle stud holes.
I drilled the large plate to 1/2. For the smaller tabs, I drilled and tapped the holes for them to 1/2-20 threads. I installed and locktighted some 1/2-20 grade 8 flange head bolts. I torqued them to 100 ft-lbs. I also drilled the caliper mounting holes and spindle stud holes.
Finished:

Now that the brackets are done, now it is simply a matter of putting everything together!

Since the calipers I got were used, I ordered some new pistons, seals/rebuild kit for them off rockauto and rebuilt them. I then wanted some high quality rotors and pads. I chose some stoptech drilled/slotted rotors. These are made by centric and supposed to be made from their high carbon alloy rotors. (I hope so, after what I paid for them!..lol) I then picked some akebono ultra premium ceramic brake pads.

Here is the finished bracket bolted on the axle.
(Yes those are 35 spline outer axles)



The rest of the pictures are just some shots of the completed install. The bolts holding the calipers to the brackets are the stock chevy bolts for those calipers. The length ended up being just right.







All and all I am very happy with the install.I have modern beefy brakes for my dana 60. I am still several months away from actually installing the axles, so no road tests just yet. But I will update when I do.
This has been a long time coming, and I have been working on this brake conversion for the past couple years off and on as time and money let me.

Feel free to ask questions, I will try to answer best I can. But to answer one question right off the bat, no, I will not be making these brackets to sell.

Interesting conversion, looks like it wasnt too hard to do. I wonder what would be involved on using more recent brakes, from a 2010+ truck. Ram uses a 14.17" rotor, but they are unit bearing and not sure how the calipers mount.

Well the 03 chevy these calipers and rotors came from are IFS with unit bearing hubs.
If I had run a larger dia rotor I probably wouldnt have had to grind on the caliper brackets. The problem would be finding a rotor with the right spacing, not to mention most things that new use metric wheel bolt patterns. Thats one thing that made this easyer, is the rotor is still for the old 8 on 6.5 pattern.

I looked at a 2010 dodge rotor on rockauto and they still have the 8 on 6.5 bolt pattern. However the rotor is about 1/2 inch taller than this chevy rotor. This would put the pad surface closer to the knuckle and may make for a caliper mounting bracket that would be a little harder to make. The matching caliper looks big and has dual 60mm pistons. If you could design a bracket to mount that caliper with that rotor, you would probably need some big wheels. Although I have not tested it, I think this setup should still clear 16 inch wheels. I have test fit the recentered H1 wheels I have and I have plenty of clearance.

True, GM used 16" wheels until 2010. While Ram switched to 17" standard due to the larger brakes in I think it was 2004.


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Cool wright up! Thanks for showing what you did.
I've been thinking about an upgrade myself, I'm just not able to get involved on it yet.
What rear axle are you using and what are your plans for the rear brakes?
I have a Dana 70 and have thought of using a set up from a 2001-2 Dodge 2500 with the internal park brake.
More than likely, any brake upgrade will be the very last thing for me.
Dan

I was going to run that same axle you are thinking of. But they are very hard to find and highly sought after by the dodge guys. Prices are through the roof when you do find one (unless you get super lucky)

I instead am running a full float dana 60 from a 2001 ford E-350 van. It has large dual piston vented disc brakes with the small drum braks inside the discs for parking brakes. It has the standard 8 on 6.5 bolt pattern, 3.5 inch axle tubes, and a smooth bottom housing just like a dana 70-U. It uses regular dana 60 ring and pinions, lockers, etc.. AND had the larger spindles that will allow 35 spline shafts without boring them out. Some of these may also have a dana 70-U, and I thought thats what this was when I bought it. The large tubes and smooth bottom threw me off. After running the BOM I found it was a 60. But no big deal. Gears, lockers, parts, are easyer to find and cheaper for the 60 than the 70. I have stuffed mine with 5.13 gears, eaton E-locker, and yukon 35 spline 4340 shafts.
I lot mine at a local yard for $350. A few months ago I saw one at my local pull a part, and their priced would have been much cheaper. So they are out there and not too hard to find. I *think* its 2000-2003 you want to look for.
Your not going to be able to just bolt on these backing plates and brakes onto a regular drum brake axle. The flanges are unique. You can just barely see the axle in my last picture. The flanges are large and thick. Not to mention the wheel hub is specific too, since the rotor slides over the hub.

Thanks for the info on the brakes. I knew that the E350 would also be an option for brakes, but wasnt aware of the axle differences.
Dan

Cool conversion, what are you running for a master cylinder? Hydroboost?

Axles are not in yet, I am still a few months away. But I will be running the hydroboost and MC from the same year range truck the front calipers came from. I got a hydroboost/MC combo from a local yard from a 2006 chevy 2500HD.

Do you still have the file for the brackets?

Yes I do.
I will share them with anyone who wants them so long as credit is given where it is due, and their design is not credited as their own.

Ok thanks can you email me the file?

Sorry for the delay, I usually only get on here once a week.
Responded to your PM and emailed them to to.

Awesome write up. I'm gonna pm for that file too if ya don't mind. Gonna plan now for future projects


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Awesome tech info! I would love to have a copy to make a set of brackets..

Mark

Tigman wrote:Awesome tech info! I would love to have a copy to make a set of brackets..

Mark

Just send me a PM with your email and I will send the files.

PM Sent!