A Few Questions About The Front Disc Swap

I bought a '74 and am wanting to swap to front disc brakes. I see you can piece a kit together using components from various makes and models, but for the sake of simplicity I'm wondering if I can just swap everything from one year and model of Jeep.

•If I buy all the parts from a '77 those would work right? To my understanding it has to use the 6 bolt caliper brackets.
•I was reading that I might have to grind part of the knuckles down, do they need major reworking or just some touching up?
•I'd need to replace the spindles right? How about the axle shafts?
•I was also seeing something about using a 2 psi residual pressure valve, is that just for the early CJ models or would I need it for the intermediate too?

I still might go for the kit from herm the overdrive guy, but I'm not sure if it uses the preferable thicker rotors and it's kinda expensive.

Thanks everyone.

 

I thought the Dana 30 started about 72 or so, with disc brakes starting about 76-77.

 

First year for factory disk brakes is 1977, and they were optional... so a '77 is not guaranteed to have disk brakes.

Yes, a '74 has a front Dana 30 with 11"x2" Bendix drum brakes all around (the first year for this config was 1972). I believe you can swap everything from say a '77 disk brake axle from the knuckles out. I believe this requires the axle outers too, but I'm not certain. This topic has been covered a lot - you should be able to find the answer if you read a few old posts. site:earlycj5.com Dana 30 disk brake conversion - Bing

 

Chevy caliper brackets would be the easiest way for you to go. Just need faced up bearing hubs with rotors. If you were local, I could damn near give you all the pieces needed other then the new calipers, pads and hoses.

 

Hmm so it looks like I either machine the hubs or have to use the later hubs+wheel bearings+spindle+outer axle shaft.
I'm considering tracking down a complete 77-78 axle and swapping everything over, I could throw my drum brakes back on it and sell it after. If not I'll go the chevy route, I'd just like to avoid any potential grinding/machining/different size bearing races although it is doable.
Just exploring my options.
Thanks again.

 

Don’t forget about the proportioning valve.

 

I bought a kit from R&P 4WD.. Was on sale for ~ $500. Had everything and great CS. Unfortunatly they have sold out to someone else.. They were great to deal with... I researched JY parts etc and decided it was just as cost effective to get a kit..

 

the axle outers do not need to be swapped. i used the original outers in my '75 in the swap. fwiw, i used the two-bolt caliper/knuckle from a later cj, along with the later spindle and bearings.

here is a link to a write-up i did years ago: drum to disc conversion front d-30

 

Oh yeah I've been looking at proportioning valves Dphillip, and thanks for that info and the link wally! I can't wait to get some stuff done on this thing but it's too cold out right now.