62 C10 Disc Brake Conversion Kit

[Marie Ota]

Belowis the backing plate shown, cleaned up with parking brake shoes installed, caliper and bracket assemblies. There was a shroud around the backing plates, but I cut them off because they were damaged (not too tough to do with a Dremel and small cut-off wheel):

I feel that braking performance is improved. My drums and shoes still had plenty of life remaining, but perceivably still worn compared to these new parts. I do not intend to swap in the WD21 master cylinder, though there would probably be some benefits from the higher split point.

I look forward to hearing how you like them as you get more miles on them, particularly on those rock ledges! This is something I've wanted to do since I got my R50, but wasn't willing to figure out how. Now I've got another thing on the to-do list!

In other news, I think I've finally (mostly) gotten to the bottom of my driveshaft issues. Was getting some bad vibrations from driveshaft runout (I had changed my u-joints during this project; whole other story), but it's much better now. More importantly, I feel more comfortable putting miles on it.

I've taken it on about 3 short trips so far, and tonight did a really hard-brake on the freeway offramp. Initially, I thought I was slamming it, but in that instant I pressed it harder, and it responded even harder. Extremely pleased with the response. As stated previously, the pedal and system feel solid, and I have no immediate complaints.

For reference, the swap was done at 177,300 miles. I don't put a lot of miles on the truck annually, let alone daily (I lack a commute), but hopefully have some trail trips lined up that I can report back on.

I took the truck on a 150-mile shakedown yesterday. Included about 20 miles of a popular off-road trail here (Crown King), 50 miles of dirt/washboard road, and 80 miles of highway over about maybe 6 hours (it was a much longer day with family riding along and several stops).

I'm very pleased with the brakes. Holding and slow-stopping power is surely improved. Had one particular "oh-@!*%" moment on a hairpin turn that I didn't see too well in the twilight on the dirt road, and my impression coming out of it was that while the drums would've held, it would have surely been deeper into the turn.

The experience with them has been hard to quantify so far, but driving with them has been like this: there are many times already that I forget that I've even swapped. That's good in the sense that nothing feels degraded or compromised. Driving around in traffic, coming to gradual stops at intersections, slow curves around the neighborhood...you just don't even notice it. But for the few instances I've need a little more (deliberate or not), I've not been disappointed. I've not had similar sensations since owning the truck, but then again, I've not changed the shoes or drums (well, sort of changed the shoes with thicker used ones from my spare axle)...but I have properly adjusted the shoes and bled the brakes several times to be as optimal as possible.

I did end up popping the LH-side end stop on the parking brake cable, so it's clear that using these isn't ideal unless you crimp them further. Even then, without removing them, they'd still have the insulation in them. I'm thinking the proper approach would be to cut off both end stops, strip the insulation, and crimp on new end stops (or salvage the end stop from the cut piece...heating it up would likely melt the insulation and allow the stop to slip off easily). It may even make sense to move the crimp point up maybe 3/4"-1" on the cable to take up some slack from adjustment at the parking brake lever.

How much more do you figure you could safely tow with rear disc brakes and the WD21 master cylinder? I've heard from a couple people now that the 5000 pound tow capacity is mostly due to the braking efficiency.

Might as well give an update while I'm at it...the truck now has 181K miles, so a little less than 4K since Nov. Truck still brakes well, zero complaints. Only notable is that a few months ago my ABS light came on and I haven't been able to clear it. I don't think it is related to the swap considering that there were a few months gap before it came on, and nothing about the sensing system has changed. When diagnosing, the system indicates it's the ABS module itself. Eventually I'll get a proper scanner that can cycle it, but for now, I haven't even seen an impact.

I did redo the 'stairs' on the Broken Arrow trail in Sedona a few weeks ago. I originally reported that the drums setup was a little sloppy. This time around, I could tell it was braking better, but it's clear now that it's time to redo my springs (I've done a few offroad trips in those 4K miles). The cheap pads and rotors were a little squeaky, but it was clamping well. On a notable, I turned around and climbed those stairs faster than I came down. Group of ATVers said "no chance"...suckers. Lockers are worth every single penny.

Well, we're coming up on 2 years of having done this project. Glad to say everything has been holding up really well, despite not putting many miles on the truck annually. Odometer now reads 185,100, so I've only seen about 7,800 miles on them so far. At last check, pads and rotors were holding up just fine. Funny thing is that I took the truck to the nearby Nissan dealership earlier this year for the airbag recall, and their maintenance report said they were wearing low...jackasses probably had no clue what they were looking at.

In other news, the torch has been passed to @TowndawgR50 to also do the swap! I had been sitting on a spare set of discs for a long while now, and just shipped them up to him last week. Looking forward to seeing his take on the project and expanding this thread in the coming months.

I plan on using new OEM discs with HD pads then running the climb and, more importantly, the decent from Crystal Mountain lookout in Liberty to serve as my benchmark. The drums last about halfway through that decent as the 4.3 differentials in 4L dont have enough gearing to keep speeds down.

Started my D22 project a few weeks ago. The fuel pump failed a few months prior, so I pulled the bed, replaced the pump, and got to work. I pulled everything off the frame except the tank, all of which got disassembled (even the leaf springs), cleaned up with a wire cup, painted, and reassembled.

As far as the disc brake swap goes, this time around the dust shields on the backing plates were in a good-enough condition to keep. The calipers needed a lot of work...the pistons were toasted by the previous owner (one of them had become molten at one point), so everything got rebuilt.

The good news is that a 300ZX disc brake hardware kit (Carlson 17418) is nearly identical, and included almost everything. RockAuto didn't show any kits for a WD21, and this kit doesn't crossref either, but after a few OE part number lookups, I was able to confirm all the main parts (in particular the spreaders) and a few springs were the same or similar enough to chance.

Left missing was the bigger metal piece near the top that separates the shoes (called a "strut") for both RH and LH sides, and one of those triangular-ish washers. The washer was also used on 300ZX, but dealers want $55(!) for it, and the struts are NLA...and were only used on WD21s. I was able to find a parts broker who can get 2 of the washers for $1/ea and a RH strut for a few bucks, but not the LH. Better that nothing, but there'd still be a problem if I couldn't find another. Of course, I could just use the truck without a parking brake (which is, unfortunately, typical of many homebrew swaps I've seen...no thanks.)

Yesterday I went to a several JYs hoping to find another WD21, but no luck. At my last yard, I came across a 94 Honda Passport with disc brakes and figured that since it was another Japanese 6x5.5-bolt 100mm-bore setup from around the same time, maybe it'd be similar. The rotor's drum shape/size looked questionable, but I pulled it anyway. The internals looked very similar, but I couldn't confirm any dimensions at the yard, so I pulled the washers and struts and took a chance. Sure enough, they were practically identical...in fact, the washers were identical.

The length was nearly spot on, maybe 1-2mm shorter between the throats than the OE piece (not entirely sure because I didn't pull apart my truck to find out), but the only fitment issue was that the throat on the lever side was just a little too narrow.

So anyway, if you're missing hardware, a hardware kit for a 300ZX, and bits from a Honda Passport/Isuzu Rodeo (and several other related applications) will do. It may also be the case that a similar parking brake hardware kit for those trucks works, too...looks very similar. (On a related note, parts from the vehicles have been used on D21/D22 2WD disc brake swaps for a few years.)

With all that sorted out, I'm stoked I can move forward with the parking brakes. I'm taking a different approach to the cables than I did on the R50, and I think it'll turn out a lot better. The general idea is to splice the mounting foot from the WD21 cable onto the D22 cable.

I've cut up a WD21 cable enough to get all the insulating boots/shields off it, leaving the foot that's crimped to the cable jacket. I'll cut the jacket a few inches down from the crimp, and then do a similar cut on the D22 cable (the cable needs to be extended a little during this process anyway). They'll be crimped back together with a 2/0 compression butt splice connector, then resheathed. Should look pretty stock when it's done. More to follow...

LEED Brakes offers top quality drum to disc brake conversion kits for popular Ford, GM, and Mopar muscle cars and trucks. Browse our selection to find the best front brake conversion kit to suit your needs and convert to disc brakes easily.

Kits are available as:

Spindle Mount - Complete drum to disc brake conversion minus a master cylinder or power booster

Manual Kits - Complete drum to disc brake conversion with manual brake master cylinder

Power Kits - Complete drum to disc brake conversion with power brake booster & master cylinder

3a8082e126