Dana 44 rear disc conversion 5 lug, drum type parking e-brake vs Eldorado/Seville combo calipers?

[Chuck78]

Well I've had a heck of a time getting the premium remanufactured brands of these calipers... Tried to purchase AC Delco's through Scoggin' Dickie's Parts Center, cheapest price on the net, order cancelled due to not in stock. Bought one side through eBay, the other side through Amazon, both AC Delco, BOTH cancelled... Tried to buy the one remaining AC Delco left in stock at RockAuto, but it sold and was no longer showing on their site when I went back the next day to purchase it.

Tried to buy the Raysbestos versions from RockAuto as the description gave me hope that they were of high quality, and as soon as they showed up in my cart upon clicking on the Add to Cart link, a message popped up saying that they had been removed from my cart as they were not currently available. The Raysbestos do still show up on the Rock Auto site, unlike the AC Delco, which totally disappeared after the last remaining one was purchased.

So I found one AC Delco on ebay, and the seller had quantity of two listed as available, which was a very good sign - as many sellers like ALL that I had dealt with for these aside from Rock Auto, will list items they do not have, and have them drop shipped from the wholesaler when a buyer purchases one - but do not check to see if the wholesaler has them in stock before listing them on ebay or their website. Frustrating!




FYI ACDelco part #'s are:
18FR791 Passenger Side (right)
18FR792 Driver Side (left)

Then I found more than 10 complete left and right sets, one mid grade, one off-brand:
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Summit Racing has the passenger (right) side Raysbestos partially loaded caliper # FRC6033 listed on ebay (qty. avail. = "More than 10"), and on their website as well, but no FRC6034 left calipers! ($84.99 + $20 core on Summit website, $108.99 ebay)
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/a...ibanner=SREPD2

Also, Summit has the A1 Cardone brand of these listed in driver's side (left) - 18-4139,
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/a...ibanner=SREPD2
BUT they don't have Cardone # 18-4138 passenger side (right).
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Rock Auto show both in stock in the Centric brand as well, photos posted above showing they are partially loaded reman units:
CENTRIC 14162512 Reman.; Includes: Hardware Rear Left
$46.79+$50.00 core = $96.79
CENTRIC 14162511 Reman.; Includes: Hardware Rear Right
$46.79+$50.00 core = $96.79
https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...b,caliper,1704

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AND...the best most consistent and available news I have found on these sought after retrofit calipers... Pirate Jack's out of North Carolina, aftermarket custom classic car/truck/4x4 brake parts seller, sells COMPLETE POWERCOATED LEFT AND RIGHT SETS OF THESE FOR $209.99 on eBay!

https://piratejack.net/calipers-hoses/?sort=alphaasc


I would imagine that perhaps Pirate Jack's is having these produced brand new, as opposed to remanufactured. So I think this solidifies their availability for the time being...
I saw them from searching the Cardone part numbers on ebay, and they will pop up if you search for 1979-1985 Cadillac Eldorado rear calipers. I am pretty certain these are brand new. I have a Pirate Jack's power booster on my GMC for 12+ years now. I just bought the AC Delco and Raysbestos left and right reman calipers for more than these cost, otherwise I would have probably bought these...
EDIT - confirmed, these are brand new reproductions from Pirate Jack's

BLACK POWDER-COATED:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1985-Cadill...s/202594418070

RED POWDER-COATED:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-1979-85...s/173172273641

RAW FINISH:
https://piratejack.net/calipers-hoses/?sort=alphaasc

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Also, NAPA has the pair listed on their website and says I could pick them up in my local store in 3 days:
#CAL SE4689 Right Passenger side:
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/SEBSE4689
#CAL SE4690 Left Passenger side:
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/SEBSE4690

and theirs are also painted or coated and I would assume a higher quality rebuild than Centric or Cardone.

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Pirate Jack's ALSO list the 1979-1981 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am WS6 suspension package rear calipers which are almost the same as the Eldorado/Seville/Riviera/Toronado calipers:
https://piratejack.net/gm-rear-calipers-for-a-f-x-body/

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Also I should note that the 1990-2002 Astrovan AWD front rotors are 5 lug on 5" bolt circle as are most all 1/2 ton 73-87 chevy truck / 73-91 Suburban front ends, but are 11.6" diameter rotors. The brackets that OldeDays Classic Parts sells (I actually may have bought the LAST set, they took them off their website and off ebay immediately after my purchase) advertise to use 11" (11.16") Eldorado (5 on 5.5") or Trans Am (5 on 4.75") rotors
I bought the OldeDays kit before I realized the diameter discrepancy, but honestly I think it may clear as-is since it is only 0.22" difference in radius, but if not, I will alter the brackets to make these work. I will probably have to turn down the center register of the rotor to a larger diameter on the lathe to get these to work on our axles, but in the future I may just have the axles turned down or order a brand new set of custom Dana 44 axles in 5 on 5 and have the center register made at 3" diameter instead of approximately 3.5"

This is better in the long term in my opinion than having to have the lug bolt pattern redrilled every time I buy a new set of rear rotors for Seville or Eldorado or Trans Am applications... Make your axles and brackets fit an off-the-shelf fitting part.

[Funky61]

Wow, Such a detailed/Linked parts update; Thanks for the info!

[Chuck78]

Most of my 91 Suburban front end parts have arrived, as well as my OldeDays Classic Parts "old style big bearing Ford 9" rear" disc brake bracket kit!
The kit will be very simple to adapt to mount the caliper outboard (radially from axle centers) 0.22" further to fit the 5 lug on 5" bolt circle 1990-2002 AWD Astro Van front rotors. See photo. I'm just going to elongate the holes on the 3/8" thick plate steel caliper mounting bracket portion, and bolt it together in the exact alignment that I need it in, and tack weld the thick round steel spacer sleeves to the 3/8" thick caliper mounting bracket to locate them exactly on the slotted elongated holes that I created, since these spacer sleeves fit very tight and exacting on the grade 8 bolts used to bolt the two halves of the bracket together.



Honestly I should have seen the simplicity in a setup like this and fabricated my own brackets, but this is $79 worth of my fabrication time and materials procuring time right here... So as to encourage anyone else to not be put off by the custom bracketry, this stuff is pretty darn simple, and if you are zapping it together with a welder, you can have it mocked up on the truck or axle with the caliper and rotor, and get the caliper pads in exact alignment where you need them, and then tack weld the brackets to be dead on in terms of caliper/pad alignment on the rotor friction surface.

Now to fix my old 1959 South Bend Heavy 10L lathe to use to open up the centers of these Astro AWD front rotors! In the long term, I wanted to get a new set of GMC Dana 44 axle shafts made up in 5 on 5" lug pattern, and with a 3" center rotor/wheel register, in hopes that the modern metallurgy is far superior to the 1960's stuff, and hoping that I never break an axle shaft on one of these things!
So if I do that, I then will be able to always just use off-the-shelf Astro Van AWD front rotors.


Honestly I think adapting any of the modern parking drum brake in rotor hat type rear disc setups would not be that bad at all either, the only more difficult very precise parts would be re-drilling the rotors to the 5 on 5" or whatever preferred bolt pattern you are planning to use, and enlarging the center backing plate register hole to maintain near perfect centricity - as on the internal rotor hat drum parking brake, it really needs to be perfectly centered, whereas with the Cadillac style caliper with integral parking brake mechanism, that bracket doesn't need to be terribly precisely located other than being parallel to the rotor, as nothing else is critical to any tight tolerances. A competent machine shop can do the backing plate register hole resizing, and lug pattern redrilling for you if your shop tools (rotary table and very accurate drill press or a vertical mill) are not capable of that degree of accuracy.


Also - on caliper availability - typing in "85 Eldorado caliper" or "80 Seville Caliper" on eBay will give you even more results, and I also discovered that CPP (Classic Performance Parts) sells these brand new, which I discovered through eBay.


Also, among others such as Pirate Jack's, CPP has a special pdf brochure on how to set-up/adjust these "Cadillac style" rear parking brake disc combo calipers:

https://www.classicperform.com/Instr...structions.pdf





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[Chuck78]

I would like to point out that this rear disc kit for the older style "Big Bearing Ford 9-inch" rear end bolt pattern is a pretty darn good deal, INCLUDES the rear caliper brackets + e-brake 79-85 Eldorado type calipers + rotors with 5 on 5" bolt pattern & multiple other patterns... $369!
The only way to beat that price significantly is to fab your own brackets entirely from scratch.

https://www.quickperformance.com/For...it_p_7973.html







I have not test fit or even jacked up the rear to get a better measurement on the axle housing flange bolt pattern on our GMC Dana 44, but someone else on this forum (or that other 1947+ Chevy Trucks website forum?) had previously stated that ours is the same bolt pattern as the old big Ford.