FC-170 Dana 44F disc brake conversion

Mudtug

Bigger Hammer
Mar 21, 2021
33
Concord, NC
First Name
Mike
Willys Model
  1. Forward Control
Willys Year:
  1. 1960
Hey all,
Working on my 1960 FC-170. Would like to convert all 4 wheels to disc brakes. She has a Dana 44F in the front & Dana 44 in the rear.

Anyone have any experience with this conversion and is willing to shed some light on the best way to accomplish this? Pretty sure the bolt pattern is 5x5-1/2…..I know I’ll need aftermarket wheels, but would feel much better with disc brakes all around.

Thank you,
Mike
 
So there are two basic ways to put disks on a closed knuckle front axle. One uses super common Delco parts. Basically the same brakes as 74-up Wagoneers or Chevy 4x4 trucks and others. I've made this swap on a few vehicles. Works excellent except factory wheels won't fit without spacers. There is also another swap out there that uses Suzuki? brakes. I've never personally done one of these, but factory rims can supposedly be used with only a fairly thin spacer. There are kits out there for either option. I lean toward the Delco setup because the parts are readily available and cheap and because the vehicles they were originally installed on were of similar or greater weight and capacity. The Suzuki based calipers were off a lighter weight vehicle that was only sold in the US for a few years.

For the rears, I would keep drums, but consider the later self adjusting backing plates. Unless you plan to carry a lot of weight, the stock 11" drums are probably more than enough and possibly too much already. You may actually want to swap to smaller diameter wheel cylinders, especially with the later backing plates. There are some disk options for the rear (the Delco based disks actually bolt onto the back easier then the front), but you generally lose the parking brake and will have to increase the master cylinder bore to 1 1/8" which might be hard on an FC. I did a disk swap on the rear of my 71 full size Jeep truck and it was a step backwards.

The rear axle in a FC-170 was a 53 not a 44 (70 was used on dually).
 
Herk,
Thank you for the feedback. I’m assuming the dana 53 backing plates are readily available? Any chance there is a tutorial or write up on the Delco swap for Dana 44? Would be nice to purchase the right parts the first time!

Thanks again!
Mike
 
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