D44 Brake Upgrades?

[59bisquik]

Has anyone done a brake upgrade on a D44? I have a 79 D44, and the brakes seem to drag alot. Is there a better caliper and mount that can be used? More of a full floating design?

 

[redneck1]

I have heard that the calipers form a 79 thunderbird can be used in place of the stockers. They supposibly have a larger bore than the dana 44 calipers. A local guy had them set up on an early bronco with F150 rotors and said that the thunderbird calipers performed better.

 

[59bisquik]

Im not really looking for better performance since the current brakes work very well (Much better than stock ever worked). I am looking for something besides the current mounting of the caliper. With the wheels off the ground, I cannot get a full turn out of the tire since there is so much drag from the brakes. I have taken them apart multiple times and even greased where the caliper slides on the mounts. They just seem to drag so much! No other vehicle I have drags the brakes so much. Just hoping there was a simple upgrade to a more floating type caliper.

 

[wahlstrom1]

I think you may have gotten a bad set of calipers (scarred bores etc) or you may want to swap master cylinders, it could be holding brake pressure to the front cylinder? I know they drag a little bit, you probably got as tired of my lil brake squeak on the trip as I did, but I've never had an issue like that.

If it is an issue that you can't get repaired easily....you could always swap a chevy brake setup as you don't need flat top's for your steering setup. IIRC they run a traditional bolt on caliper setup.

 

[59bisquik]

They actually dont squeek or anything. They just seem to be harder to turn than they should be. The MC was replaced not that long ago with and upgraded MC and booster. However, the calipers were the ones that came with the axle. I guess I am just wondering why they drag so much and how much that might effect my MPG too. Im doing everything I can to try to make that better.

What would I have to change with the Chevy brakes? I dont want to have to change bolt patterns for obvious reasons.

 

[wahlstrom1]

I'd pull the calipers, and look into rebuilding them or simply buying new ones as they're fairly cheap. The chevy brakes would involve swapping chevy knuckles/spindles and brake mount setup.

My guess is the bores in your calipers are siezed/eroded and are causing your issue.

 

[59bisquik]

Hmmmm...interesting. I thought it would possibly be due to the way the caliper slides on the mount.