james1

I understand and I apologize for hijacking this thread. I suspect my question may be related however.


I was under the impression, obviously mistaken, that all D70s have inboard brakes, and all D80s have outboard brakes. (That is, I had no idea the Second Gen D70s came with outboard brakes.) I'm not sufficiently familiar with bearing/axle/drum geometry to even offer an opinion. But if it's a plug-and-play modification, I agree that it seems like some one would have tried it?

u2slow

With the 2nd gen trucks they changed from ford style brakes to gm style. It might be worth nothing that gm changed the hub bearing spacing when they went to a slide off drum... that would be a key detail to check.

james1

Am bumping this thread because the question was never answered.

The guy in Finland who started the thread wants to know if he can take parts from a boneyard Second Gen D70 and use those to convert his First Gen D70 to having outboard brakes?

It's a good question and would be a great BOMB if it's a plug-and-play modification.

Anyone?

TIA.

james1

Resurrecting a thread that isn't terribly old because the question is being asked anew.

Converting to outboard brakes is clearly a worthwhile goal.

MrFusion

I've been considering the same thing myself. I haven't taken measurements etc but just eyeballing the two D70's it looks like the 1st gen backing plate is situated much further back on the housing tube than the 2nd gen. It appears that you would have to move the backing plates out several inches on the 1st gen D70 to work with 2nd gen drums. There are also the other issues people have brought up. If you compare pictures of the two drums and take into account that the 2nd gen drum is in front of the axle flange and the 1st gen drum is behind the axle flange you will see what I mean.
Probably much easier to swap the complete rear from a 2nd gen under the truck. Remember that a 2nd gen rear is about 6 inches wider at the wheel mounting surface than the 1st gen axle.

samiam4

Could you simply shim the backing plate out and move the drum from inboard to outboard on a D70 without complicating going to a newer year?