[xj4life]

@JohnnyJ

Looking at manual brakes for my buggy, came across your thread on irate. Did you ever fix your brake situation? I'm running a similar brake setup (2005+ ford d60 front stock brakes, 14 bolt rear (chevy 1/2t calipers). Any lessons learned you could pass along?

 

[JohnnyJ]

The manual brakes on my buggy worked, but required lots of pedal travel. In 4LO crawling down large drop offs, I sometimes was annoyed at it's holding capability. I generally just go into front low as it helps the push off feeling and helps the braking. It's not super common, but that was my biggest complaint.

I'm blowing up the entire setup right now. I wanted to try using an iBooster and in the process I'm swapping out calipers and rotors to match up with the stock ibooster master. Not sure how it'll work, it's more of a science project.

If I ever get to it, I plan the original rotors & calipers with a hydroboost system on my Wagoneer. For the buggy I decided I didn't want hydroboost, but for the Wagoneer I think it'll be fine. The reason for not wanting on the buggy was that when you are braking and steering, it can have impacts on steering. Given the buggy is a crawler, I wanted to avoid this pitfall. The wagoneer will be hydro assist and I won't be using it for the technical crawling that i use the buggy for.

 

[Plato2k5]

The fix for the steering or brakes getting priority is having a ported hydroboost. I have ZERO issues when I brake and steer at the same time.

 

[xj4life]

Hmmm. Guess I'm going to try to make my stock-ish vacuum boosted setup work. Should work well enough and I've got everything I need.

 

[JohnnyJ]

if you can fit vacuum booster, then I'd try that first. I didn't have room for a vacuum booster. Was going to have to do remote hydroboost, and then decided I'd try iBooster.

 

[Zjman]

Hmmm. Guess I'm going to try to make my stock-ish vacuum boosted setup work. Should work well enough and I've got everything I need.

We been putting dodge 1 ton masters on Jeep stock boosters with awesome results. Cardone part# 13-2867
Bolted right up to my cousins 89 Cherokee. Had to modify rod and reseal the booster on my brothers zj all running superduty tons The master takes metric fittings btw

 

[xj4life]

We been putting dodge 1 ton masters on Jeep stock boosters with awesome results. Cardone part# 13-2867
Bolted right up to my cousins 89 Cherokee. Had to modify rod and reseal the booster on my brothers zj all running superduty tons The master takes metric fittings btw

Yup, I've got one sitting on my work bench. Good heads up on the metric threads!

 

[JohnnyJ]

I haven't updated here in a while. The short week before Thanksgiving I was at Rugged Mountain Ranch in Oklahoma when my buggy lifted a fuel rail when a nutsert in the plastic intake pulled out. This caused a fire that burned my wiring harness and destroyed my seats. As part of project creep over the winter, I decided I would upgrade to an iBooster since I was rewiring anyway.

The iBooster uses a 26mm master cylinder, which would have been overwhelmed with my stock front 2007 d60 calipers and rear 1/2-ton chevy calipers. So I started off thinking I'd use some junkyard 2009 ford flex calipers that gave me a reasonable hydraulic ratio.

I started with the rear calipers and got them to fit, but I couldn't make it work on the front without machining the knuckles, and I didn't want to go down that path. So I did some research and ended up with Howe 33658 calipers up front that are the same casting size as K10 calipers but with 2.625" pistons instead of 2.94 or 3.15 pistons. This matches up with the flex calipers.

On the rear I ended up reusing the 2003 Yukon XL 3/4-ton rear rotors instead of going to 1999 E350 rear rotors. They have the right bore for 14-bolt hubs and are a 12.99" diameter instead of 12.83". The flex pads fit perfectly on the yukon rotors.

front calipers using original mounting provisions on brackets that I made. The front uses 1999 E350 rotors with the center bore opened up.

 

[JohnnyJ]

To fit the iBooster, I had to make an offset mount. The brake pedal is in the same location as when I had manual brakes. I moved the brake shut off valves from right by the master in my old setup to something I could easily reach when belted in.

This weekend I'm headed to Good Evening Ranch in West Virginia, so it'll be a good test of how I like the iBooster. It feels good on my test laps around the block.

 

[JohnnyJ]

Since I had a bunch of rewiring to do, I decided to move the ECM from under my switch panel to the B-pillar firewall. The terminator wiring harness was perfect length to do this, and prevented me from having to wrap it up under the hood. So I built a new center console and the box at the back cover the ECM to protect it from the elements.

The old center console was thrown together with a plan to be temporary, but was good enough to not mess with. I'm pretty happy with the new version that extends the whole tunnel and hides wiring and plumbing.

 

[SHARPMACHINE]

Looks fantastic!!!

 

[Plato2k5]

Nice work! Glad the fire did not cause more damage! The ibooster looks like a nice unit and much easier then running hydroboost. Very compact as well.

 

[JohnnyJ]

Back from the weekend, and 100% happy with the brakes on the trail.

End of the day Saturday I tested it by driving off a big ledge. Old brakes I'd struggle to hold it back, needed lots of leg to hold. Now it's moderate pressure and it's got more holding pressure than anything I've driven. I was able to creep down the ledge with great control. Very happy.

 

[JohnnyJ]

Some pics I nabbed form facespace and irate4x4.