Disc brake conversion: YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG

[unstable]

14 bolt FF / 89 1 ton, stock suspension. Ruff Stuff conversion kit...assuming I've got everything bolted up correctly, which is 45 degree angle facing to the rear flange inboard to put the caliper over the disc...top guidepin is not clearing the leafspring.
My first thought was...maybe I have the leaf compressed some with the jack, so I lifted on the frame and it's the same story. options? suggestions? all comments / laughs / ridicule are welcome and appreciated.

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[unstable]

Here's what I'm thinking...again, if you think this is a horrible idea, please do chime in. Option 1 would involve clearancing one side of the guidepin enough to get it to slide past the bracket. Option 2 would involve clearancing the leaf bracket enough to slide the guidepin...option 3 would involve splitting the clearancing between the guidepin and the leaf...I really am not even entertaining unbolting the axle because that would mean anytime I have to do pads, I'm going to drop the axle? not happening. Lots of gasoline and a match might work though.

 

[SAATR]

Clearance the pin, shouldn't reduce its strength any and will give you room to slide it past the springs.

 

[unstable]

My initial thought was that clearancing the pin would work, it didn't...I contacted Dan at Ruff Stuff and he recommended the same thing. It's now looking like the only way that I'm going to get this pin in is if I unbolt the U-bolt that it's interfering with, which is a super-pain in the ass, and quite honestly I'm not sure how safe it is to unbolt one of the two u-bolt, probably need to read up some. Any other suggestions here? I guess I'm also of the thought that if I'm going to go through the damn hassle of halfway detaching the rear-end from the suspension that I'd like to make any changes that would avoid me from having to do this in the future. Part of the reason that I opted to do disc brakes in the first place is because the brake lines needed replaced and accessing the back of the wheel cylinders was impossible because of the placement of the leaf.

WTF?! excuse me while I do some self-loathing.

 

[SAATR]

How hard is it to unbolt the bracket to move it? I don't know how it's supposed to install, but it seems like you could try clocking the bracket to the front to see if it would give you the clearance you need. All you would need to do is swap the calipers from one side to the other to keep the bleeder valve on top. I don't know if the lines are universal, but it seems like it would work.

 

[unstable]

It isn't/wasn't hard to unbolt the bracket and rotate it, which I did and it appears like it might work. The normal orientation for the bracket, to my understanding is with the mount at approximately 45 degrees pointing to the rear of the vehicle, I unbolted and rotated it counter-clockwise towards the front so it's 45 degrees towards the front. I didn't tighten anything up, but it looks promising. My only minor concern at the moment is that it kind of seemed like the caliper was binding in the bracket and I figured that it was supposed to float on the guide pins. Not sure if this is just due to crappy tolerances with the crappy calipers that I bought or something else. It's probably nothing that 5 minutes and a dremel couldn't solve. Thanks for the insight, I'll keep you posted. With some luck I'll get this thing buttoned up tomorrow. My soft-lines aren't going to arrive here until Tuesday, but I can get this back together and I also have an issue of a "heated O2 sensor" that might fix my throttle response issues that I need to look at...plus I can tidy up some lines in the meantime.

 

[JonZ71]

my calipers sit on the bottom side of the rear axle... and no offense but i would be more concerned with the rust then the Conversion.

 

[unstable]

I'm sure this truck has seen its fair share of new England winters. Where there is unprotected steel there will be rust. It's superficial for the most part and as much as I'd love to have the resources to strip it down and clean it up, when you've got a wife, 3 kids, a mortgage, a full-time job, you're coaching youth football full-time and have countless other projects, you can't get too **** about some rust.

 

[unstable]

SERIOUS BUMMER
I ended up clocking the brackets downward at a 45 degree angle after reading what JonZ71 had posted. Everything looked like it was finally going to come together. I put the hoses onto the calipers and sprayed the back of the pads with disc brake quiet and went to put everything together and....hmm, pads aren't fitting. There's no way in hell that the pads were going to fit. I knew that I had the right calipers/pads and started wondering whether I made a mistake in the bracket I ordered. I reviewed my order and all looked well. I finally called Ruff Stuff to ask what the deal was.

As it turns out, my truck is an 89, which I was up-front with Ruff Stuff about. I have a 14 bolt FF rear. They advertise their brackets as working up to 1987, which is why I contacted them, sent pictures and specifically asked whether or not their kit would work with my vehicle and the owner said that it would fit my axle. I was told on saturday that above 1987 it's "hit or miss" and I would need to go to a weld on custom bracket, which is just outside of the scope of this project right now. So I boxed up all of the parts and returned them to the place of purchase and grabbed hardware to put the drum brakes back together.

Just a bit of caution to anyone who goes to try what should be a simple upgrade. =/

 

[bggrnchvy]

GMT400 spring width doesn't mesh with that clocking as you found.

Earlier trucks had narrower rear pad width that worked out.

Mine are clocked down as well, I've only hit the lines once which just resulted in having to retighten the banjo bolt.