Build Day 2

Not too many pictures from Build Day 2. Much of it was slow and tedious work. But it was still work.

I bent new lines with the new fittings. I then discovered the big fittings I bought also had a bigger ID, so I had to cut the flange off of the old and new lines, salvage the big fitting from the old lines, and then reflange the new lines. Hand bending and hand flanging of the lines, along with the fitting boondoggle took a few hours.


Then it was time to install the new master cylinder. Another boondoggle all to itself. First, you have to use a new master cylinder because the old drum brake MC has a residual valve to keep about 9-10psi on the the line that you don't want with discs. Plus, mine leaked some, so a new MC was a good idea. The push rod and hold down setup are different between the two MC's. So after a few hours of cutting, cussing, and body contortion, I finally got it installed.


And now for the fun part. "Driving it?" you ask. Nope, the tedious job of bleeding the brakes where it seems like no matter how much bleed them the brake feel is still too soft and you need to bleed some more. Finally, at about 8pm I just got tired of messing with it. I put the wheels back on it and dropped it to the ground. I took it for a spin around the block and there needs to be much more bleeding of brakes. But after cleaning everything up, it was after 9pm. I'm done with this until tomorrow.

Build Day 1

I was really kind of hoping to get the truck back down on tires today, but it just didn't happen. I did make some decent forward progress.

Here's the baking plates that hold the calipers.


I'd taken the hubs off, had the wheel studs pressed out and new ones pressed in (Dodge put left hand studs on the driver side years ago that, today at least, really confuses people). I also cleaned them and all the bearings up. I had to repack the bearings with grease and press in new seals. The AutoZone nearest to me did not have the seals, so I had to go to another AutoZone, and they had the seals, but two different kinds. That's why they look different in the photos, but they should still work.

Of course, the hubs were different too. The one on the right had a smaller cavity for grease and also had a slightly larger diameter due to a lip (that's important later).


Here's the driver side hub on.


The lip on the passenger side hub ended up getting in the way of the rotor when I went to put it on. I had to whip out the angle grinder and make some room.


Here's the rotor on and ready to go.


And now for the caliper and pads.


Finally the new hoses and banjo bolts. But... then we run into the problems.


The original fitting on the hard line running from the distribution block is too big to fit into the new hose.


So I pulled all the hard line for the front brakes and will redo it as soon as I can get hard line and fittings.

Part I - Dissassembly

This is what we're starting with. A set of 11" drums. Once I took this apart, the drums look pretty good. I might end up trying to sell them.

Here's a close up of the suspension. Front leaf springs ride great ....

Got the drums off easy. And found new hardware. Someone rebuilt these not too long ago. It stops well if you are ready to pump the brakes some. I wonder how much of the stuff from the fronts I can use on the back. The backs are really wore out.

Finally, after some cussing and fighting I got the backing plates off. I ruined one bolt that was super stuck. Now I get to find a suspension bolt that isn't something you can go pick up at AutoZone.

Finally cleaned up all the bearings and ran down all the threads I had tools for.

I may start putting it back together tomorrow, but I won't be able to finish it off since I need the bolt.

Stop!

I'm finally going to get to start the disc brake conversion on the old pickup. I think I'm still missing a few parts, but this is certainly enough to get going.