R&P's Disk brake conversion- S10 based

I agree, R&P is top notch. Super helpful, very friendly and great to do business with.
I did this conversion with a mixture of new and boneyard parts. Fortunately I had access to a mill for free so costs were kept down. Still might be into the whole deal for $300+ with new rotors, caliper rebuild kits, pads, lugs, bearings etc....

 

Just for clarification, Ryan "the jeep guy" sells his own front disc conversion and does not source these parts from R&P. He is, or was, selling R&P's rear disc conversion on his website. Not sure if that's still the case. On R&P's website it defaults to the highest shipping cost. If you call or e-mail them they can get you a more accurate cost. I spoke to John about this and he said it was just too much work to set up the web site to change shipping costs for every zip code as costs are constantly changing. So yes, best to contact them directly.

For a brief rundown on Ryan, may want to look at this thread http://www.earlycj5.net/forums/showthread.php?112198-Turn-signal-for-grill-needed

 

I bought my backer plates from the guy because at the time he was the cheapest. I had no issues. I also have no experience other than that. Online sale.

That being said, the R&P kit ,to me, looks to be the the one to buy. Cheapest, studs are pressed in, new bearings and hubs and apparently a great track record. If I was looking for a bolt on disk brake set, this would be the one. No press needed, just remove old brakes and install. No brainer.

I have looked up part prices and since I have done my conversion the price for the parts has increased quite a bit.

 

After to talking to R&P today I decided to go with the 1/4 ton kit and I have it ordered. I'll post pics when I get them installed. John at R&P was very helpful and I think this kit will be the best way for me to go.

Nick thanks for the feedback on the jeep guy. It is amazing how thick CJ's are in your alls blood up in Oregon.

 

My jeep has R&P's 1/4 ton kit on a Dana 30. I'm running 33x10.50's, and I'm sure they'll be more than enough. I'm very happy with the fit/finish of the kit, and the price was reasonable considering there was no head scratching involved, and it bolted on easy and hassle free. Only major work required was pressing out the old knuckle studs, but I don't think that's necessary on a D25/27

 

Jake,
I had seen your brake pics in another thread, they are part of the reason I decided to go with the 1/4 kit, because they look like a good fit on your d30. I'll post my d27 install when its done.
Thanks for the info.

Grant

 

Getting anxious to get going, so I got started on the tear down today. I missed Jeff Gordon's last Daytona 500 for this, so you know it is important to me!

I have been calling John at R&P about when the parts will arrive, I probably annoyed him too much. If he's reading this, I apologize for bugging you on the phone so much.

I am also rebuilding the knuckles and wheel bearing while doing this conversion, figured might as do it all while I have it torn apart.

I am going to put button head cap screws to replace the spindle bolts in the knuckles too, the way it has been shown on this forum and in Moses Ludel's books.


Here is the drum brake before it meets its doom:


Here is the knuckle pudding from 1995 (last time I rebuilt the knuckles) bleeding out. The pudding didn't stay very will mixed.


Here is one side torn down. Round one complete, I'll try to do the other side during the week nights if the kids don't keep me too busy.


Time to call it a day, put the jeep to bed.

 

Warn has not offered this kit for some time. When I talked to them, I asked them to send me the drawings of the caliper bracket… and they did! I am interested because I used their axles and FF kit and the brackets should fit with no issues.

 

Todays update:
Got all the parts from R&P. One of the original boxes shipped never made it from the USPS. When John from R&P looked into it he found it had been classified as "dead Mail" so he was very prompt in sending me replacement parts. Everything is here now. I got the seals, spindle bushings and hub oil seal from 4wd parts. I also have new knuckle bearings ordered from rockauto. I neglected to get a shim kit ordered for the knuckle bearings, so I have to wait for those to come in before I can get things put back together.

The shim kit is coming from Kaiser willys. They are couple of bucks more expensive than at the 4wd parts store but they always send me one of their catalogs which is a great read and reference, so I figure I could send some of my business there.

I spent this morning cleaning up my knuckles, hubs, bearings, hardware, spindles etc. I am going to paint the knuckles before I put them back on but it is too cold to paint right now. So I am basically in holding pattern right now until I get the shims and warmer weather.

My kids are waiting for me to go sledding with them this afternoon anyway, so no more work is getting done today.

Here are the parts. The caliper brackets from R&P are on the lower left. The workmanship on them looks top notch. They look flat in the picture but they actually formed with a slight offset.

 

A little progress made today. My shim kit arrived today USPS, so I had a little time this afternoon to start putting things back together. I mounted the drivers side knuckle with new bearings. After waiting so long for the shim kit, it turns out I only needed about .015" worth of shims on the driver side, all under the top cap. This got me to 14 pounds of pulling force on the steering arm of the knuckle. As measured by my fishing scale anyway. The OEM spec is 12-16 pounds, so I am dead center in the spec. This will make all you six-sigma guys happy, especially if I can repeat for the other side.

The knuckle bearings are new, National brand. I used the knuckle bearing original caps because I absolutely do not trust the Chinese manufacturers when it comes to materials or casting processes , and these caps are all about materials and casting processes. I'll just take my chances with my 45 year old American made caps. Same story with all the hardware.

Also, I opted against doing the steering knuckle spindle stud-to-bolt conversion, mainly because I couldn't find a machine shop that would do the spot facing of the knuckle for a reasonable price and I figure I have made it this long with out every having problems with the cast threads, so I'll just keep living on the edge.

 

I didn't know that there was a reason to ever replace the bearing caps. I never did on either of my D25s. I never had issue. If you were close by you could just come over and do the machine work yourself.

 

Grant,
If you have a drill press you can do that counterbore operation yourself. Machine Shop Discount supply sells the counterbore and pilot for about $35, and the button head screws and nylock nuts were around $2 apiece at the local Ace Hardware.

Don

 

Don & Chris (DJ & 47V6): you've talked me into it. I have the button heads on order from Mcmaster, my neighbor has a drill press and a selection of end mills, so Ill mod the parts this week. I tore the knuckle back down. I'll feel better about the job, and since its all torn down anyway I might as well do it right.

 

I have never tried to use an end mill on a drill press. That might take some doing. Make sure you secure your work to the table well. I have no need to do this mod (D30), but have read the how to. If I were to do it I would go without a counterbore because then you could still use the threads that are already in place in the knuckle. I would cut enough to make a nice flat surface for the shoulder of the screw, not more, and use permanent locktite to secure them in the knuckle. Maybe thats already covered... Take pics and post em. Good luck!

 

Grant,
You will need to either secure the knuckle onto the drill press table or else use a piloted counterbore cutter. An end mill will just bounce the unsecured knuckle around on the table, but a 3/8 pilot on a counterbore cutter will locate the cutting tool on the center of the hole and the pilot will eliminate much of the side pressure on the spindle. The pilot will not damage the existing thread in the hole, you just need to cut deep enough to create a flat seating surface for the screw head.
Actually a drill press isn't designed for milling operation, it doesn't have spindle bearings designed to handle the side pressures you would place on it using an end mill tool.

Don

 

I agree that a drill press may not have adequate spindle bearings to do a satisfactory job. You really need a milling machine. If you can get a countebore without a cutter on the part that rides in the threads you might have a very good chance of being able to do this. I may be naive about countebores though. the only ones I have are cutting type. You're going to need to secure the knuckle in a couple spots to the table. If you were just closer you could just use my milling machine and be done with it.

 

This is exactly what I just did with mine, except I got the bolts from McMaster Carr.
Be careful! I ruined 1 knuckle by cutting too deeply (luckily I had a spare).
Once that counterbore cutter starts into the cast iron it cuts pretty fast!
Other than that it worked great!

 

Thanks all, counterbore cutter on order.

 

In tonight's news, a quick update. Our machine shop at work used to allow people who were qualified to use their equipment if the shop mgr allowed them. BUT that was before we became part of a large public corporation, so now it a apparently a sin.

But I ask the shop manager, who I have known for about 20 years, and he basically said that since I was in the building usually an hour so before anybody else anyway I could use the shop as long as I put away the tools, cleaned up the chips, blood splatter and body parts before anyone got there. He would take a don't ask don't tell position and I would take all the blame if I broke something or lost a limb.

So mission accomplished, I put the knuckles on the drill press and got them done pretty quick about 4:30 am Wednesday morning with relatively little blood loss, and tools cleaned up and put away before anybody that would be a tattle tale saw me.

Disclaimer before I get in trouble with the forum: DON'T EVER USE MACHINE TOOLS WITHOUT TRAINING AND PERMISSION FROM THE OWNER.

Got the studs in the knuckles this afternoon, so now the loctite 271 is drying. Hopefully I can make some good headway this weekend putting things back together.