Accidentally building an LJ
- Thread starter Rnuovrcj5
- Start date
I’m sitting here deep in researching adapting Tesla electric parking brake calipers onto the back of this thing. There’s a thread going on Irate about it that got the gears grinding in my head. And this YouTube video:
How I use Tesla Parking Brakes in my Jeep!
I’m gonna wait for the guy on irate who ordered a set of calipers to share some measurements to be sure I can squeeze the actuator motors in. I’ll probably do something similar on my C10 at some point too.
How I use Tesla Parking Brakes in my Jeep!
I’m gonna wait for the guy on irate who ordered a set of calipers to share some measurements to be sure I can squeeze the actuator motors in. I’ll probably do something similar on my C10 at some point too.
NCJeeplover
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2009
- Location
- Claremont, NC
Brennan Metcalf has a rear brake kit that uses Ford Fusion calipers for flat fender jeeps. I remember talking to him about doing a kit for your typical one ton brake conversion. He said he had researched it and a F150 had a rear electric parking brake caliper that would take a full size vented rotor. I tried to talk him into making a kit but he was to busy.
Hokie_YJ
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2006
- Location
- Johnson City, TN
That’s a cool idea. I’m going to use the UCF bracket that bolts in place of the factory parking brake bracket underneath and uses the cable to activate a remote Wilwood MC to lock the rear brakes. I’m just going to delete the factory parking brake on the 10.5.
NCJeeplover
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2009
- Location
- Claremont, NC
That's a pretty neat product. Seems there was a build on here from years ago that did the same thing.
He’s weighed in on the irate thread with some info. I looked at the F150 stuff for my C10 and it’s an option for that truck still. If I remember correctly, the F150 used the same or very close rotor thickness to what’s on the floater 9” I have in the truck. And I think the piston area is only a tiny bit smaller than the GM D52 1/2 ton calipers that are commonly used in the off road world so they’re a solid option for sure. The C10 has a Tilton pedal assembly that I’ve not yet mounted or bought master cylinders for so it’s a nice blank slate starting point.
All of the parking brake stuff was missing from the TJ when I got it so I’d be starting from scratch to use that bracket. I did consider it for a bit though. I’d also like to build an aluminum center console in this at some point so I’d rather wire a switch than have to build around the e-brake handle.
I caved into my impatience and ordered the Tesla calipers last night along with a few of what I’m fairly certain are the right plugs to wire them.
irate thread on the electronic e-brake if anyone feels like reading it.
OE Electric Parking Brake on older 14b?
I have an older 14b with the standard Chevy disk kit and I want a good parking brake. I would like something stronger than the ElDorado calipers to hold my 42”s and like the idea of adapting a newer OE electric parking brake. I have looked at the 2020 Silverado and Tesla electric parking brakes...
irate4x4.com
Got a few minutes to mess with this pile this afternoon so i made the bendy tool for the sway bar arms. Some 1” solid round bar, a piece of steel plate, and a little section of dom. I welded it together and tacked the upper part to my 20 ton press. I ended up bending them in 3 places the way Tony from TK1 told me he does it. It ended up working great and was even pretty easy to get the arms to match. Now I need to make shorter links to connect them to the axle as my guess for that was pretty far off.
I‘ve also managed to find time to get the Swag air/hydraulic stuff set up on my bender. Now I’ve just got to make a stand for it so I can use it. The steel to do it is laying in the floor so I’ll hopefully get that knocked out soon.
Tesla calipers are here too. I’m going to split them and make a 3/16” spacer between the halves to fit my 1.25” rotors. Wiring connectors, a dpdt rocker switch, self resetting breaker, and a reversing relay are sitting here to try and make something that works if I can get them to fit back there somewhere.
The only other thing that’s changed on this thing is that I ended up trading a kind of rough set of half door lowers for a set of full hard doors. I drove the Jeep to Colombia on Saturday in a monsoon with the full soft doors on it so I could stuff them in the back and drive home with the hard doors on. The passenger door is tweaked a little bit but it shouldn’t be too bad to get it back right. And they’re already black so I don’t have to mess with that.
I‘ve also managed to find time to get the Swag air/hydraulic stuff set up on my bender. Now I’ve just got to make a stand for it so I can use it. The steel to do it is laying in the floor so I’ll hopefully get that knocked out soon.
Tesla calipers are here too. I’m going to split them and make a 3/16” spacer between the halves to fit my 1.25” rotors. Wiring connectors, a dpdt rocker switch, self resetting breaker, and a reversing relay are sitting here to try and make something that works if I can get them to fit back there somewhere.
The only other thing that’s changed on this thing is that I ended up trading a kind of rough set of half door lowers for a set of full hard doors. I drove the Jeep to Colombia on Saturday in a monsoon with the full soft doors on it so I could stuff them in the back and drive home with the hard doors on. The passenger door is tweaked a little bit but it shouldn’t be too bad to get it back right. And they’re already black so I don’t have to mess with that.
ghost
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 25, 2006
- Location
- Hartsville/Camden,SC
I would love to add a parking brake to the Ghost. I thought about the Eldorado Calipers but have heard they were getting hard to source. I've got a lugnut kit on the D60 rear. I'll have to see if I can find some info on brackets.
paradisePWoffrd
Recovering Project Junkie
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2005
- Location
- Newton, NC
apparently Lugnut has a new ebrake kit that doesnt use the eldorado calipers but has a mechanical ebrake. I am following along with all the electric brake work, although 1 caliper that is hydraulic & electric, and large enough doesnt seem to exist.
Late model f150 stuff might be an answer to that. They’re real close in size to the GM D52 calipers that pretty much every rear disc conversion uses and have an electric e-brake built in.
They use a thinner rotor but there’s some stuff out there to fix that. The Irate thread has some good info on that. You’re pretty much locked into a custom caliper bracket to do that as far as I know though.
I don’t think there’s an off the shelf bracket out there yet. I’ve got a set of motobilt brackets sitting here to try out on my main calipers. Whatever the ones on my axle right now are, they’ve only got 4 position options for the calipers and 2 of those are on the bottom side of the axle tube. I’m hoping the motobilt stuff will give me a couple of options to be able to move the main calipers and hopefully open up some space to squeeze the Tesla e-brake stuff in. I’m planning on adding tabs to the motobilt brackets to hold them if I can find room to fit them.
ghost
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 25, 2006
- Location
- Hartsville/Camden,SC
I wasn't aware of this. Going to go look up those lugnut calipers.
paradisePWoffrd
Recovering Project Junkie
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2005
- Location
- Newton, NC
The f150 calipers are the same size piston as the small (jb6) eldorado calipers, but smaller than the larger (jb7) ones (2.497"). If someone is currently running a Chevy 1/2ton caliper (2.934") or 3/4 ton Chevy (3.146") it is a good bit smaller. I am currently running a Gm metric caliper (2.375") in the back, so its not too far off. I would like to upgrade to a larger rotor and caliper at some point, once I swap in power brakes.
Bought a new top and finally pulled the dash again to replace the A/C evaporator and got it charged up. It’s pretty much become my dd since then with a couple multi-hour trips thrown in. I still need to dive into the front end so it’s actually 4wd but my kids love riding around in it possibly more than I do so I’m cool with it how it is for now. We also trailered it down to my parent’s house and drove it to my 20 year high school reunion. Fun times.
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2005
- Location
- Raleigh, NC
Take the cowl off and put a piece of metal insect screen over the vent opening with some high quality double stick adhesive strips.
The leaves (esp willow oak) will just get back in there if you don't.
The leaves (esp willow oak) will just get back in there if you don't.
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2005
- Location
- Raleigh, NC
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2005
- Location
- Hendersonville, NC
Add neon behind the screen for flair
I took a bit of a break from working on this thing due to buying a house back in July. I’m now getting settled to the point that I’ve messed with a little over the last month or two. It took a ride down to Greenville, SC for Carlton Customs to do the gear install in the front RJ60 and get inner shafts made. Waiting to measure for them instead of ordering the 78-79 Ford shafts that supposedly this housing was built for turned out to be a solid move. They wouldn’t have been even close. Only issue the axle has now is a leaky driver side inner axle seal so it’s gonna end up getting torn down at some point to fix that.
I finally got around to getting the rear corner armor cut and installed. It’s taking way longer to do it than I would have guessed it would. Passenger side is cut and has paint drying right now. Lots of holes to locate and cut/drill in addition to the wheel opening on that side. The Genright stretch TJ rocker guards I had weren’t gonna play nice with the Motobilt corners so I ended up buying a set of Motobilt wheel-to-wheel LJ rockers during their Black Friday sale. They line up like they’re supposed to so now I’ve just go to get them painted and installed.
I finally got around to getting the rear corner armor cut and installed. It’s taking way longer to do it than I would have guessed it would. Passenger side is cut and has paint drying right now. Lots of holes to locate and cut/drill in addition to the wheel opening on that side. The Genright stretch TJ rocker guards I had weren’t gonna play nice with the Motobilt corners so I ended up buying a set of Motobilt wheel-to-wheel LJ rockers during their Black Friday sale. They line up like they’re supposed to so now I’ve just go to get them painted and installed.
Last edited:
. 
