First Gen Brake Upgrades???

[Tbars4]

...This is from the guy who does it...
http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showpost.php?p=309613&postcount=13

Anyway! With regards to the 2wd I-beam Rangers.

"If you have 89-97 I beams, you can install the 95-97 knuckles & brakes. It is a straight bolt on. And since the 89-97 I beams can be installed on the earlier Rangers... well... you know where I'm going with this!

And of course, if you need more stopping power, I have a couple of components that allow the installation of 13" brakes."

 

[Stic-o]

just one little issue ted... with 13" brakes... your 15" wheels will no longer fit. you'll have to buy new wheels and tires.... I'm sure my dad will sell you his '80 F-250 cheap. Then you can just swap in the whole front 8 lug axle:

 

[Tbars4]

...Here's a quick summary of my thinking...

...My Ranger's front end requires some uh, well, let's just say I'm not all that interested in opening up a hybrid Dana 35 just to replace parts...

Option A
...My Ranger is a 95 so I could get the parts from it to do the dual pistons calipers for my X...:scratch:...This could leave me having to find a Dana 30 with 4:10's locally and cheap, which would be good practice for when I find a Dana 44 that I could cut down, unless I find an EB for dirt cheap...

Option B
..Swap my Front end off the X onto the Ranger, Swap in an 8.8 in the Ranger (it has a 7.5 which the seals are leaking for the third time) , after I do an axle swap for the X...

...One of these trucks are going to benefit with the brakes upgrade and one of these trucks will be fixed/upgraded cheaply......The other one will cost..

Readers digest version:
...The First Gen Front brake upgrade for the 4x4's can be done with a 95-97 Ranger knuckles and calipers for cheap, using the existing Rotors, on the cheap..

 

[CDW6212R]

I've read a lot of those threads, Ryan did a great job with his also. I did my custom brakes before the others. What I learned early on is that the offset of the Mustang rotor is much different from the Explorers. It places the caliper very very close to the wheel, too close for many wheels. I started with the Cobra rotor(13" x .350" offset), then looked at Corvette rotors(13" x .850" offset), and gave up to have custom rotors made.

The stock Explorer rotor is about 1.450" offset, far from the 0.350" of the Mustang. I knew from past experience that a rotor should be a diameter 1/4" smaller than a 1" increment. If the rotor is 11.75", it can fit inside most 15" wheels. Make it 12.75" and it goes into most 16" wheels. A full 13" rotor shouldn't fit inside any 16" wheel, it's 1/4" too large. If I had done those kits, I would have made it to fit a cut down and re-drilled Corvette rotor. The machine work would make a rotor like that cost a good $50 more, but the other parts would be the same low costs. That would fit inside most 16" wheels.

My brakes are good now at 12.75" x 1.25", but I did find a bigger caliper with very large pads. The caliper will not fit inside any of my 16's except the Limited 99-01 wheels I have. The new caliper is bigger in all directions.

It's all good stuff, keep at it. Regards,

Below is the Cobra rotor(.350 offset), my next custom rotor(Explorer offset), and note the offset difference between the Cobra and old Explorer rotor.

 

[Tbars4]

...Thanks for adding that great bit of info...:biggthump

...The good news of doing the 95-97 4x4 Ranger dual piston caliper swap to a first gen Explorer is, they both are built on the the same Dana 35's...Even if it is from a Hybrid Ranger Dana 35, they are Identical...With the exception that the 95-97 Ranger got the new knuckle and dual piston calipers...They both fit inside a 15" wheel...

 

[90ranajo]

The one thing to know about the '95-97 Ranger brakes is this:

You need to swap the whole knuckle, as they are different. The 1st gens have the caliper mount casted onto the knuckle, whereas the '95-97 Rangers have the caliper mount bolted to the knuckle with 2 15mm bolts.

And yes the twin piston calipers are bolt on/off.

I'll try to take some pics tomorrow of an assembled and disassembled '95-97 knuckle.

 

[90ranajo]

OK. Here is what the '95-97 Ranger twin piston setup looks like. I don't have any 1st gen knuckles to compare to, but you should have an idea of what yours looks like.

Assembled passenger side (front & back):

Close up of bolt on caliper:

Disk dimensions (approx 11"x1")

Individual components (the 2 smaller holes in the knuckle are for the ABS sensor):

 

[TedJ]

90ranajo, could you please fix the pictures in your post? I'm trying to do this swap and I had saved this thread from awhile ago, and now I came back to it and the photos are gone.

Also, if anybody has an idea what the Hollander interchange or ford part numbers are for both sides knuckle and caliper bracket, that would be great.

 

[Tbars4]

...It sounds like you are going for new parts rather than the JY...

..For JY parts I would have referred our vendor Kbabiak in Pa. as I get a lot of great parts from him for swaps..:biggthump

...:scratch:...Have you tried our Forum Vendor Rockauto's website?...They have a great parts search engine, very good service, and you can also get a discount code for your purchase...

 

[TedJ]

...It sounds like you are going for new parts rather than the JY...

I'm going for whatever I can get

I know I'm probably not going to find new ones for a reasonable price, but I figured I could try anyway before going looking at the junkyard. They should know me by name at RockAuto by now, I think half this truck is made with parts from them, : but alas they do not have the knuckles. They do have reman caliper brackets though...

My next step was to go to PA and try to find some at the pick-a-part yards, but I haven't seen that many rangers out there (a seemingly endless supply of explorers though) so I wasn't sure if I could find them. (Plus having to pull them with hand tools only...)

I think I will try contacting Kbabiak and see what he can do, thanks for the tip!

 

[Glen4X4]

Hmm....glad to have seen this thread maybe a new mod after the rear axle.....The junkyard up the road here has some rangers

 

[Tbars4]

...I went to Ford to find you some numbers..

...First, you can no longer get these 95 Ranger Brake parts from Ford after doing a National search on their Database...

Knuckles

RH F57Z-3130-A
LH F57Z-3131-A

...Now when you talk to Ford on the Calipers and parts, their computer shows the 95 4x4 Ranger as having single pistons and the drawing shows the 91-94 X parts while the 95 2wd and 98 4x4 Ranger share the same dual piston part numbers, calipers, and components yet the 95 2wd Ranger says single piston also...

...Just for reference we looked up the 95 2wd and 98 4wd Caliper repair kits which show all the parts and includes pads...These part numbers pretty much include all the bolt on parts minus the slide pins w/ bolts and the brake caliper bolts..(these bolt/slide pin items you can get in the "Help" section or behind the counters at most parts stores)...

..The Ford p/n's for the Caliper repair kits are minus the letters as they are sub parts so they only show sub numbers,

RH 2B120
LH 2B121



...Welcome to my world as I deal with this all the time...

Edit: I found these on Fleabay..
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=19...7Z-3130&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

 

[mr cribb]

Okay... I think I understand.... but maybe I don't. Can you use the dual piston calipers on a 2wd? I have a 2wd.

What loses me is the swapping of spindles. Is this for the 4wd only or both 2/4wd?

The dual piston calipers are what year ranger? My 94 ranger was single piston caliper.

Sorry for not "getting it"

 

[Tbars4]

...This discussion has mainly been about swapping the 95-97 4x4 Ranger knuckles w/ dual piston calipers to 91-94 4x4 X's as they share the same Dana 35 beams to begin with..

..As for 2wd vehicles, I am not sure as I don't have any to test the theory out on..

...We are always interested in those who think outside the box though and who try new things and report back with their findings..:biggthump

..Maybe someone with a 2wd will jump in here and say if it is possible...

The one thing to know about the '95-97 Ranger brakes is this:

You need to swap the whole knuckle, as they are different. The 1st gens have the caliper mount casted onto the knuckle, whereas the '95-97 Rangers have the caliper mount bolted to the knuckle with 2 15mm bolts.

And yes the twin piston calipers are bolt on/off.

I'll try to take some pics tomorrow of an assembled and disassembled '95-97 knuckle.

 

[mr cribb]

...This discussion has mainly been about swapping the 95-97 4x4 Ranger knuckles w/ dual piston calipers to 91-94 4x4 X's as they share the same Dana 35 beams to begin with..

..As for 2wd vehicles, I am not sure as I don't have any to test the theory out on..

...We are always interested in those who think outside the box though and who try new things and report back with their findings..:biggthump

..Maybe someone with a 2wd will jump in here and say if it is possible...

Okay thanks for clarifying this. IF my x wasn't a DD/ had the cash outlay, I'd try out the goods to see if they fit a 2wd.

 

[Tbars4]

..:shifty_ey ..Do it...You know you want to...:

..You might just pick up a knuckle or look at one at the JY, take some measurements and see if it might work..


...90Ranajo got the pictures back up...:biggthump

..That should give you guys a bit better visual reference...

 

[TedJ]

...Now when you talk to Ford on the Calipers and parts, their computer shows the 95 4x4 Ranger as having single pistons and the drawing shows the 91-94 X parts while the 95 2wd and 98 4x4 Ranger share the same dual piston part numbers, calipers, and components yet the 95 2wd Ranger says single piston also...

Now that is CONFUSING . A big for the info though, this is all good stuff to know. 2/3s the work on these kinds of things are figuring out what to get and where to get it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I guess I'm not getting any online, searching for those part numbers only returns this thread on Google. And if Google doesn't know about it, then oh boy :

I left a request in the Kbabiak parts request thread so I'll see when he gets back to me if he has any.

EDIT: He got back to me... and only has one side, so I'm still looking I guess....

I guess it's off to bum a cordless impact from one of my buddies and venture to the land of junk....

 

[Tbars4]

...The fleabay link I posted earlier may be able to help you find cost comparisons and where parts may be located too..

 

[Tbars4]

...For those looking to do the rear "disc swap" the hard way with parts, I've started a thread on it here..
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=321394

 

[TedJ]

So, after much research, rusticles, and part supply issues, I did the swap and it is complete and drivable. Works great, so much better braking, and my pads won't fall out now . I found 2 or 3 trucks with the right components in the pick-a-part, but so rusty I think they were stored in a salt lake for their entire life. Ended up getting them from a regular yard, still very rusty but at least salvageable.

For anyone interested, I made a whole thread about it: 1st Gen 95-97 Ranger Brake Swap Info/Parts List