my neighbor a few doors down has a 03 dak qc 4.7 slt. as like a lot of people in the U.S.A.(including my wife) he had lost his job. he now cant make his truck payments. he is thinking of letting the bank take his truck(repo man). this is where i was feeling bad for him.........until he says to me, "hey McNasty", "what parts could you swap from my truck to yours before mine goes bye bye?" of course i said holy f##k are you kidding? so i claimed the heater box w/ blower and resistor and the heater control panel and rear door window regulators. headlights and drv door switch.
here are my questions:
we DO have the same rear end gear, but he has disk brakes, how much work to the brake system is needed besides the whole diff swap? i.e. master cyl, booster etc?

he must have the 545 trans, its the 5 speed auto. will it bolt up to my 01 4.7?
i dont know how much time i will have to do the swaps but it will be short once he calls the bank.
if yall have any other small swaps that could be made let me know please.
oh yah, he has a fiberglass tonnue cover he wants to sell for $350. let me know if interested.
once again,sorry for the long thread. im giddy,HEHEHE

 

First of all, bad for him, good for you

The whole disk brake assembly (including backing plate etc) is fully swapable onto your drum brake rear axle assembly. The only thing that isn't swappable is the emergency brake cable because it is different where it attached to the backing plates. (I know all of this because I put in a rear end from the junkyard that had drums while I already had disc brakes). Therefore, there is NO need for swapping the whole rear end solely for this purpose. If you really do want to swap the rear end, your haynes manual has easy to follow instructions for doing so. That is up to you.

 

i just want the disk brakes. i dont use my parking brake anyway. i can leave it unhooked so the wife doesnt leave it on and drive to the store again. lol

 

Well then it would just be a matter of disconnecting everything from the brake assembly. MUCH easier and faster than doing the entire rear end.

 

I would advise getting the parking brake legit hooked up at some point anyways. Even if you are able to get it off of his truck. I imagine that is a dealer only part. You would be better served being able to park it appropriately when needed. Just work with the Wifey

 

plus, proportioning valve, because a drum PPV will lock up disks in a hurry, I reckon.

 

Where is this proportioning valve?

I already had disc brakes. Bought a junkyard rear end with drum brakes. All I had to do was put my disc brakes on the other rear end. I don't have experience starting with a drum brake setup and then switching to disc.

Do share!

 

Rantz, what you did was change your rear end, the disc brakes was taken from your old rear end and put on the junk yard one. that is why you don't have to change your proportioning valve.
McNasy, you are doing the opposite as Rantz. you want to change drum brakes to disk brake with the same rear end so you would need to change the proportioning valve. i am not sure where it is located on the trunk but just follow from the brake booster and work your way to the back of the truck and you will see it. most likely it would be on your frame in front of the cab.

 

If you are going that deep, take the booster,master cyl, and the maybe the anti-lock setup, as this is probably different from drum to disc. Or atleast check with a dealer to see what is the same and what is different. Brakes are nothing to guess about.

 

Stopping is a bit more important than going, if you know what I mean lol