i am in the market for new rear brakes for my dana 35 rear axle and i dont know if i want to get new drum or get a disc brake conversion kit. How much better are disc brakes compared to drums? and is it worth paying more money for discs?

 

not unless your gonna do some serious off roading. discs are nice and if you can afford them, then why not. but if you get good quality parts for your drums and have them well adjusted it sould be just fine.

 

yea, how much would the disc conversion cost? imo, it just wouldn't justify the cost b/c drum brakes are fine as long as they're adjusted properly. i'd spend the money on other things.

 

Discs make a huge difference. I recently switched them over on my 01 XJ and it is like night and day difference. Rather than spending 5 to 600 on a kit I went the junkyard route and pulled the necessary parts from a 98 ZJ. The conversion was fairly simply and straight forward, including the proportioning valve swap.

There is a great write up on here that is very helpful.

The discs are vastly superior to the drums and are definitely worth the time and money. Good luck.

 

Usually costs about $400 a side, unless your grabbing some JY Grand discs and swapping.

Drums are fine if they are adjusted a properly maintained.

 

well, 500-1000, depending on quality and where you get the parts, and where you get them installed. if you go all out with the quality and installation, you could drop 2 thou easy. yea, baller!... or go JY

 

I only spent around $250 - $300 total. I bought new rotors, pads, and parking brake shoes. Everything else came from the junkyard and works beautifully. Its a pretty easy upgrade, no need to have it installed by a professional.

 

I just picked up both rear disc assemblies and the proportioning valve off a 96 zj for less than $50. Ill install them myself and have less than $150 in the setup including new axle seals,pads,and gear oil

 

Teraflex has a sweet kit for 349 I would look at that

 

if you know how to weld this is the way to go , less then 100 bucks and solid as hell , i go thru drum brake shoes about once a month with the mud and all the hill climbs i got tired of it
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=419527

 

Where did you find a Teraflex kit for $349? Lately I've only seen them going for around $650.

 

Ebay there is also a stainless steel kit for 700

 

I did mine for $70. I bought a parts axle from a local Craigslister for $150 from a 98 Grand Cherokee, I drug it home and took the necessary parts off and then sold the rest of the axle for $80. Buying the whole axle also afforded me the bonus of getting the parking brake cables which can be used to reconnect your parking brake to the new discs. Another bonus was the previous owner had just installed new pads so I didn't bother buying anything new. I just made the minor modification needed to the inner diameter of the backing plate and voila! Just make sure if you do do the jy disc swap to make sure you get the studs that hold the backing plate in place. AS for stopping...the difference for me was amazing. Of course, I am sure bleeding the brakes was also a huge help but offroad is really nice. They self clean so you don't have to worry about all the mud packing in them.

 

is there a write-up somewhere on what's needed to swap ZJ rear into an XJ? I'm kinda intrigue (if it can be done on the cheap)...I also have ABS, will that be a problem?

 

http://home.swbell.net/rriojas3/reardisk.html as far as the abs....I have no idea.
The project can be done for less than new parts from the parts store it just takes patience.

I should also mention that this swap is for the 8.25, I think the d35 is same process. Although somewhere I remembering that a spacer needs to be made for the backing plate but I think thats if the brakes came from a d44 and are going on the d35....I can't remember exactly.