What Axle? What Brakes?

Mine is a '66 CJ5 - I took the Dana 27 off and slid this 30 (?) under. The spring pads seemed like they were like 1" wider but with a little pull they lined up and bolted on no problem.

I thought the new axle was a '76 - '78 Dana 30 Front that I swapped in but the brakes I bought will not fit.
I have a friend doing the brakes so he just sent me a couple photos.
Here are the photos.

 

Can you get a number off the axle? I posted mine on here and it was id'd in minutes.

 

The 76-78 should have a 6 bolt caliper bracket that bolts on with the front spindle and a rotor about 1 1/8 inches thick. Yours looks more like 79-81 or so with the caliper bracket bolting to the back of the knuckle with 2 bolts and a rotor about 7/8 inches thick.

 

Could be as early as 1977 with 2 bolt mount and 7/8" thick rotor.

Check the build date on the axle........

 

Still having trouble getting the correct brakes for this axle! I ordered Disc calipers for a 79 CJ5 they were about 1/2 inch to small for the bracket (see photos above of brackets and brakes that were too big). Here is a photo of the axle

I can't make out the date 9 13 ?9?5 - Maybe 9/13/75 - If it was an '85 would the axle still be the same with the differential on passenger side? Looks like 1975 didn't have disc brakes and it its an '85 the brakes should have fit?

 

On my 1979 D30 the caliper P/N's from Autozone are C218 and C219.
Brake Rotor X 2 5110 7/8" thick
Brake Caliper C218
Brake Caliper C219
Brake pads D91

 

Here is my write up, lots of great input from members on this forum.
D30 Upgrade

 

72-81 D-30 Narrow track 53"..............82-86 Wide track 56".......................For the most part those axles are the same at the ends , short of the overall track width.............

Lets work backwards and measure your Rotors: If there 11.75" OD with a height of 2.20" ( you may have to take them off the hub or have a way to measure there height as if they were setting flat) and a hub register bore size ID of 3.76" and a thickness of .875" +/- those would be off a 1978 axle with the code of being on a 2-bolt mount............so I would be checking the calipers for a 1978 CJ5 with 2 bolt mount caliper & rotor.....................I believe the correct Calipers will be #184015 & 184014...........and not the 4085 or 4086 Caliper number which is for the thicker 1.125" rotor. Keep in mind the numbers given will cross over to many other manufactures numbers so don't get confused.

The key again in the parts books for rotors are either a 6 bolt mount or 2 bolt mount.............and yours are 2 bolt based on your picture.........take that bracket with you to the parts store.......

 

Getting the proper brakes for this axle is still kicking my ***!!! I bought this Dana 30 close to 10 years ago and I thought at the time it was stock brakes. We've ordered or fit at NAPA every jeep brake caliper we could find and none have fit!! So I think I remember folks taking brakes off different vehicles and fitting onto CJ axles. Please take a look at the photos above and I have a couple more to post below and help me get brakes on my project. Thanks for your input!!

 

See photos above the rotors are 7/8 thick and 12" diameter. That 12" rotor seems to say it's not a Jeep thing???

The date stamping on the axle is where the mystery goes next. Seems to be missing some critical information..


Here is the rotor bracket. About 128mm opening for the caliper to fit. We had Jeep calipers bigger and smaller but not one fit..

 

The mounting bolt holes are real close to 3" on center.


...and a photo of the axle from above...

 

Anyone got an idea?

 

Just my thoughts. Regardless of what axle this is, do you even know the ratio? An axle from a later jeep most likely does not have the same ratio as an older jeep. Even if it will physically bolt in and you fix the brakes, you might need to buy new gears to make it work with 4x4. I would check that the ratios match before I did anything with worrying about brakes.

 

Maybe I missed it but I don't recall anyone mentioning that these are right and left specific. Part numbers from my 2 bolt calipers are:

Bendix
2238365-L
2238366-R

If I remember correctly they can be assembled on opposite sides but just won't quite work properly.

 

Mike, Thanks for the reply. Do you think yours has this same mounting Bracket? (see photo) I've tried all the Jeep calipers I could get from Napa and Quadratec and none fit. The dimension inside the bracket is 128mm.

 

I did change the gears to match the rear already 3.73 I think.

 

Yes that looks just like the bracket I have, I can get a measurement tonight to verify. I don't recall but the brackets may be side specific also. I purchased my calipers from Carquest (Advance Auto Parts).

 

The year of your axle is 1980 from a CJ5/CJ7 from the BOM number on the right of your photo in post#5. I have this same BOM number on my D30, only with a "1 "suffix (3:07 ratio) where your suffix is "2".
Don't spend too much time on the date code on the left as the year makes no sense to me either. My date code is 11 15 96BE.
At least you now have a reference as to what year Jeep your axle is from for the purpose of ordering parts.
-Donny

 

Yes I'm measuring 128mm. Also my brackets are mounted to the outside of the knuckle ears.

 

OK Guy thanks for the reply. I'm sure we tried '79 cj brakes but I'll try again with these ##s for cross reference. I'll let you know what we find......