Ugly Trucking Disk Brakes

[cosmic339]

Hey does anyone know if ugly trucking is still in business i emailed him last week and still have gotten no reply, he seems to be the only one who does brake wheel disk conversions.

 

[L1A1]

Not sure. the last I heard, he'd moved to Thiland to be closer to his Wife's family. You might try Snake river 4X4 and M-series rebuild as I thought one of them was also doing the hub conversions. I just sold my M37 project and all the bits & bobs that go with it. There were two complete sets of those hubs included in the sale.
Matt

 

[cosmic339]

that makes me want to cry, lol i just contacted both places and snake river doesn't make those kits and told me ray is my only chance as well as the m series said they make there own product but they haven't maid it for sale and only use it on there own trucks. they don't want to put it for sale because they don't want to take ray's business but they know he is not around. well at least that's honest. it seems like with all my research of upgrading the m37 a lot of it has to be completely replace to work in this modern world. for example you want to change the axles because u cant get disk brake and want more options in rims and wheels. that's just a sample example but i think it has wind down to this as one of the simplest path to go is to get a rolling chassis from a more modern truck and just put the cab and bed on top of it.

 

[nattieleather]

Rear axle replacement is easy almost a bolt in job. Front Axle is the PITA! You have to modify either the axle or the spring to make it work. It can be done though. Of course if you take a good look at rays brake system one could replicate it if they have a machine shop that will do that kind of work for them. Or maybe it's time for someone to reinvent the wheel so to speak and develop a new disk brake kit....

 

[Tanner]

that's just a sample example but i think it has wind down to this as one of the simplest path to go is to get a rolling chassis from a more modern truck and just put the cab and bed on top of it.

This is the point when it ceases to be an M37 - this is when you simply buy a CUCV.

'Tanner'

 

[Kasper31]

Yes, the brake rotor type system is about the best you can put on the M-37, however when I started into my project I found the same problem you are getting into. What I did was go to the duel master cylinder type system and that has worked very well for me.

 

[MatthewH]

I wouldn't hold your breath for the disc brakes. I just bought 2 sets from him, and after some contact about some bearing races, he said he probibly wasn't going to be making anymore sets.

Nattie,
not sure what you mean by the front being a PITA, mine have gone on quite well, with out harldy any modifications. Other than flipping the front hub bolts and removing the tie rods for r&r, everything went togeather smoothly.

 

[zak]

Come to Oscoda next year ( hopefully the show and swap meet will still happen) I'm going to decide over the winter if I still want to use the set I have or sell it. No rotors or calipers but the rest is there and new as it came from Ray. My truck stops fine as it is but then I have the stock engine. I took the v8 out of the M43 and I'm putting the 6 back in so it will be even slower than the M37cdn (251 engine).

 

[cosmic339]

Great Zak thanks for the info, but when is that meet? i might need those brakes before then im looking at making work on the truck sometime around December. But if i dont get nothing done i would be happily to purchase those from you.

so people who usually swap axles wind up putting d60 in the front and rear? or i also read 14 gm bolt. it seems like im more learning to the side of swapping axle since there is more options in rims and wheels , than just converting the front to disk brakes.

also on that note is it safe really for trucks or any car to have different track width axles front and back . for example if my m37 has front axle with 62" track width but the rear has 63". would it effect driving or alignment? if not should you have the rear wider than the front or just try to have both nearly at the same width.

 

[nattieleather]

.

Nattie,
not sure what you mean by the front being a PITA, mine have gone on quite well, with out harldy any modifications. Other than flipping the front hub bolts and removing the tie rods for r&r, everything went togeather smoothly.

Matt I was talking about a front axle swap and not the disk conversion. I'm not sure how you could just flip the front hub bolts to install a D60 axle on the front end.

In order for the front axle (D60 or D44F as I used) to sit evenly spaced on the truck you must either shorten the drivers side axle housing or move the passinger side spring out to side of the frame. About 1 inch if I remember correctly. Because the spring perch is set into the diff housing you can't just move the pearch like you do in the rear. It's not a bolt in job.

@ Cosmic339. You could do a D60 and GM14 bolt combo. I chosed the D44f and D60 out of a M880 for a couple of reasons. One it's from a 1 ton Dodge truck and two it a locked hub which goes with my design. What most people who have done the swap have done myself included is moved the leaf spring out from the frame as needed.

Not only do you get disk brakes (rear kits are easy to find) you also get a stronger axle as the M37 has been known to snap axles on wet grass. (Actually saw a M37 spin its tire on wet grass and snap his axle shaft). So to me the axle upgrade even if it not a bolt in job is a better option IMHO.

 

[cosmic339]

@nattieleather thanks for that info, but i just did a dummy search on ebay and found an abdudant listings for both of these axles! now there all from different trucks, i guess i would just have to make sure with the track width to know they dont pass a crazy amount.

 

[MatthewH]

Matt I was talking about a front axle swap and not the disk conversion. I'm not sure how you could just flip the front hub bolts to install a D60 axle on the front end.

Nattie, my bad, I thought you were talking about the disc conversion, not an axle swap. I meant the outer knuckle flange bolts on the stock M37 axle have to be flipped to clear the calipers.

Cosmic339, the Oscoda show has typically been in June, however MIMVPA hasn't yet set a date for next years show.

 

[Cav Trooper]

I did my conversion about 4 months ago. Took about half a day with bleeding lines etc. Not bad at all. Would do it again in a heart beat. PO put silicone fluid in and replaced all the brakes, lines etc. Never could get a good pedal. I put in a dual master cylinder first, still not good, adjusted and readjusted the shoes, bled and bled and bled the lines, pedal always half way down or more. Installed the new discs, new master cylinder, new hoses and wheel cylinders and flushed the hard lines. Put in Dot4 fluid bled the brakes and all works great, almost stop on a dime.

 

[Cav Trooper]

brakes

Almost forgot, installed 10lb check valve for rear and 2lb for front discs.

 

[cosmic339]

what gears did you install with the axle swap i see so many different gears available. is 4.10 okay?

 

[nattieleather]

Since I used the axles out of an M880 it came with 4.10s. If you are going to use a 4BT and 4.10 gear you will get good highway speed. 4.10s are low enough to also provide good off road performance. If you use CUCV axles (M1008 for axample) then you will have 4.56 ratio which will still provide you with a good performance both on and off road.

Joe

 

[cosmic339]

Since I used the axles out of an M880 it came with 4.10s. If you are going to use a 4BT and 4.10 gear you will get good highway speed. 4.10s are low enough to also provide good off road performance. If you use CUCV axles (M1008 for axample) then you will have 4.56 ratio which will still provide you with a good performance both on and off road.

Joe

Any Decent place that sells these? where did you locate yours? i couldnt really found a cucv forum

 

[nattieleather]

I got mine off of a user right here on Steel Soldiers. But check junk yards the forsale section here in SS. Craigslist, ebay etc. There are loads of D60 axles and GM 14 bolts out there. Just make sure it's off of either a pre93 Dodge or a GM truck. Fords have the pumpkin on the drivers side and you will need the pumpkin on the passinger side. Also you might want to look into changing the transfer case to a NP205. This way you'll have the rear output for the drive shaft going straight back since the M37 transfer case is off set for the rear axle. It becomes a can a worms no matter how you look at it.
Joe

 

[cosmic339]

okay so pre 93 dodge or gm truck, are those just about the same size?

you know i was thinking about that, will i be able to change the tcase later on if i got a divorced style and wanted to change it to a married type?
did you just reused the same driveshafts from the stock m37? or got custom ones?

 

[nattieleather]

I'm not that far into my project. I will probably have custom ones made because I'm going with a 6.2 diesel 700r4 NP208 set up and therefore everything needs to be changed.

I assumed (I know my bad) that you were keeping with the stock motor and transmission. If you are keeping those parts then you will have to keep the T-case divorced. Well I suppose if you wanted to mess with making adaptors and some enginering you could marry the t-case to the transmission, but why go through all that.

If you change the axles you may be able to use the stock driveshafts but you will probably have to have the u-joint changed to match the axle yokes.