CHECK THIS OUT!!!!
http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech/reardisk.php

 

I agree that the front brakes could definately be bigger. I know that the mid 70's 3/4-1ton fords have dual piston front calipers with dana 60 outers so I believe it would be just swapping parts to have dual piston calipers. Which I believe would help emensly.

The only problem with going to larger rotors/calipers is that there is not enough room in the wheel for them. Hence the new trucks going to 17in wheels. So if you put 19.5 inch wheels on you could put huge brakes in there!!

 

I've heard that people have junky pedal feels after doing rear brakes. I'm really tempted to convert mine. Can I use the stock master? Is the RWAL still used?

 

There ain't exist a strong enough anti-rejection drug that would keep them FERD calipers from being chucked by my Dodge!

 

I have heard it both ways. I will probably try the stock master, but if I don't like the feel I'll get a late model "full disk" unit. As far as the RWAL, that should still work just fine, maybe better than stock because of constant proximity of pad to disk.

Maybe we can make a dual caliper setup, naaaaaa

 

We could all go to the ford block anchor i guess.

 

[QUOTE=JimmieD;1147227]I strongly agree with loch about welding on the calipers. Before welding you would need to know the exact metallurgy in order to use the correct filler wire. Most MIG wire is very hard and brittle compared to cast metals including the various irons. If it was to be welded the whole piece would have to be pre-heated before welding and post-heated afterwards, and this according to the specific metal it's made of. Sudden catastrophic failure and a real disaster could be the likely result of doing this quick fix.

I would agree with your statement if I were trying to weld back together a cracked or broken part, I was only suggesting a that a small amount of metal could be added back on the caliper support wear mark to level out the wear groove.

 

[QUOTE=Jim5870;1148073 I would agree with your statement if I were trying to weld back together a cracked or broken part, I was only suggesting a that a small amount of metal could be added back on the caliper support wear mark to level out the wear groove.[/QUOTE]


That's just the problem: the one area is heated by welding and the rest of the piece is not. The contact zone between the heated and unheated portions will have the metallurgy all messed up inviting stress fractures. The heat treat process brings everything back into alignment and relaxes grain structures equally rather than having one higly stressed part and one non-stressed part. Without post heat and preferably preheat too you may have a sudden and complete failure of the caliper mounting ways.

 

I went the other way on piston size. I replaced with 1" and my paddle doesn't ride the carpet any more. The reason I did this was from Jeep experence when I couldn't find 5/8" for a '60 and used 3/4" that was availble. The brakes worked but paddle was on the floor. I have better brake paddle than I ever had before.

 

I suppose you could just strip the caliper, throw it in a kiln and heat it to 1,000 deg, weld it, then bring it down slowly, grind the weld to nominal tolerance, then rebore the piston bore because it will be out of round, have an oversized piston made and put back on.

OR you could buy a new caliper from NAPA.

Incedentally, I don't think a small, localized MIG bead will hurt the caliper metallergically. Since it is basically a big chunk of metal it's not going to be effected much at all.

Can we give this hijak a rest?

 

I just went back and read the progression of 1st page post and replies. Seems to have started with your questions and then several suggestions for solutions. Welding of the caliper was brought up as possibly solving your problem. I didn't want you to trash your caliper or kill yourself or someone else so that's why I posted regarding metallurgy and possible disasters. Sorry if that was taken as being a hijack....

 

I'm very sorry, you are correct and I appreciate the advice a bunch. It was just getting far afield, but I was wrong in labeling it a hijack.

 

No problem at all, brutha! I spend my entire life in clouds of miscellaneous confusions so I was sorta inquiring where that was directed. The thread did bounce around in a lot of directions but that seemed normal for me

 

Believe me, my life is a confused collection of "bounce around" ADD insanity. I get it!
Thanks my brother!