Dana 30 Upgrades

Was talking to this vendor today. He told me the 76 & 77 disc brakes on a Dana 30 are sad, they do not release and the inside of the rotor get destroyed. When I tore my 30 apart, I noticed that one side of the rotor was destroyed and the other side look OK, at that time I did not put much though into it. This system was made by Ford. The 76 & 77 disc brakes have the caliper mounting bracket with 6 bolts

Jeep changed to a different system in 77 which was better. He sells a upgrade kit to change the disc brakes to the GM system which is a upgrade. I told him, I took a Dana 27 out of my Jeep with a disc brake conversion. He said the Disc brake system on my 27 will work on the 30. Will have to knock out the race on the back of the 27 hub and put a 30 race in.

This will save some money on my conversion if things work out, might find out this
weekend.

 

The inner bearing is different on the drum and disk. the outer is the same. The seal is different too, I think. The GM disk brakes work on D26,27 and 30. You still need the 77 disk. You also want the disk hub because its machined true as apposed to the drum hubs.

 

This may or may not work. I had an issue with the inner race when I installed the GM front disc brakes on my dana 30. Look at this thread post #36 which deals with the race and banjo bolt length. Also look at post #33 - #35 which deals with the wheel lug bolt lengths.
Front Disc Brake Tutorial

 

Just adding this...
JP Magazine article using Chevy parts with 77-78 rotor

Geo Tracker/Suzuki Sidekick Disc Brake Solution For Early CJ5's

 

On the Dana 30, I installed the caliper mounting bracket, Dana 30 spindle and the hub and rotor from my Dana 27. Everything went together with no problem. I installed the Dana 30 bearings in the hub. I think they are Set # 45 & 47. With the way things went, I will have the GM brake system on a 76 -77 NT.