Brakes and axle differences between 74 and 77

I have a rust free 72 maverick with 4-lug and want to move to 5-lug and front disc brakes. For donors I have a 74 LDO, extremely rusty body, and a 77 maverick with some holes in the floor and trunk. Is there any difference between those 2 when it comes to the brakes or axles?

The 72 has a 3.00 rear and the others have 2.79 based on the body tag and I believe they are all original. I was planning on putting the 3.00 in one of the others when going to 5-lug.

 

I'm not sure the axles(or at least bearings), are same size for four & five lug, at worse you use the best housing of the two and swap out the carrier... A/C cars got the 3.00 gear...

Brake parts are likely same between '74 & '77... Go to any automotive parts site and check to see if the two years use same pads, hoses etc... You will need to swap brake lines or maybe use adapters as drum fittings for '72 will be different tan either '74 or '77...

 

you need the 5 lug axles with the 5 lug 8" housing... swap spindle assy. for front brakes.

 

The brakes are the same, however the '77 has a proportioning valve while the '74 just has a junction block. I'd go with the '74 system.

 

Do both the 4-lug and 5-lug have 28 splines so I can swap the center member?

 

Can you help me understand why the junction block is better? Is the proportioning valve just an unnecessary 'complication' while the junction block is good enough?

 

It's not "better", it just fits better and is less work when doing the disc brake conversion. If you go with the '74 system, you will have to re-flare one end of only one of the short brake lines going from the master cylinder to the junction block. You'll have to re-flare (or completely replace) a lot more lines if you go with the '77 setup. The '74 junction block is oriented horizontally just like the '72, and bolts to the fender apron. The '77 is oriented vertically, as well as the fittings are a different size, so new mounting holes would have to be drilled, and the brake lines would all have to be swapped as well.

The third-member will work with either 4-lug or 5-lug. But the housing has to be for 5-lug if you are doing the 5-lug conversion.

 

agree...

 

Thanks for the explanation on the brakes.

It was my expectation to move the third-member to the 5-lug housing as I have read about the different bearing sizes between the housings.