Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

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Dakota Kids
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Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by Dakota Kids »

Hey guys, I hope everyone is doing well. It has been awhile since I posted I occasionally LURK but never really have a good question until now. I have searched the posts but I am still a little confused. Here goes, Ty and I did the DJM Dream beam install and used the disk brakes from a 79 donor. We want to switch the rotors to the 5x4.5 pattern I have found the redrilling option and I found the option to simply use a 1987-90 Dodge Dakota Rotor. I noticed two options and 14" and a 15" rotor. Does anyone know much about this option can we still use our Ford calipers on the Dodge Rotors. Will the bearings be the same? We tried the adapters but with the setback on the rim we chose we need to get the wheel closer to the rotor. So an adapter cannot be used. We are using a 18" Rim. Thanks Guys
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Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by 64 f100 »

Ford also made some pickups in the early 80's with the 5 on 4.5 pattern. Look for these on the cheaper f100? trucks.

Rich
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Dakota Kids
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Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by Dakota Kids »

Thanks we will give it a try. I appreciate the suggestion.
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Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by 36truck »

Hea Craig how are you doing. Were still here working away. Still need to find time to meet you & the family.
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Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by randyr »

64 f100 wrote:Ford also made some pickups in the early 80's with the 5 on 4.5 pattern. Look for these on the cheaper f100? trucks.

Rich


Everything I've read says the early 80's 5x4.5 rotors won't fit the 65-79 spindles. :cry: I wish they would cause I'd be ordering some right now! LOL! I've never seen any posts about using the Dakota rotors on the Ford spindles but would be curious what you find out.... :)
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Dakota Kids
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Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by Dakota Kids »

It looks like the Dakota Rotors are 2 inches to short. I read about the Dakota Rotors in the archives but the info was pretty thin. Hey Tom I am off next week give me a call if you have a chance.
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randyr
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Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by randyr »

You've probably figured this out already but from what I've read, there are only 2 ways to get 5x4.5 with your twin-i-beam spindles - redrill the rotors or use wheel adapters. Obviously, if you use wheel adapters you'll have to account for the extra 1+ inches of width when choosing the backspacing for the new rims. If you redrill the rotors, make sure the new wheels will fit over the center portion of the rotor. Good luck.

How do you like your dream beams? I've heard some people say their overall width is about 1.5" shorter than stock. Have you found that to be true?
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Dakota Kids
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Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by Dakota Kids »

Ya I read a incomplete post. They are at the Machine shop now to redrill and move the studs $80 for both. The Dream Beams look great but we haven't driven it yet we will let you know. Ty went with 18" wheels we will post a picture or two when we get the wheels on. As far as width goes The Dream Beams seem a little wider in the front. We used 1.5" wheel adapters on the Rear they have perfect look. We will see how they work as time passes.
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Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by 62galxe »

Don't know if they will fit but 80 to 83 f100 with 4700 gvw used 5 X 4.5 bolt pattern.
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detai ... &ppt=C0009
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Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by Dakota Kids »

Looks like another miss


We need 5.7" the 81 is Overall Height: 4.28"
We need 11.75" the 81 is•Overall Diameter: 11.04"
•Bolt/Holes: 5
•Bolt Circle Diameter: 4.50"
•Nominal Thickness: .88"
•Discard Thickness: .81"
Doesn't look like it would work real well. I hope this saves someone else some time. :shock:
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Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by Dakota Kids »

If anyone else goes thru this don't forget to machine the wide part of the lip on the hub.
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Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by randyr »

Dakota Kids wrote:If anyone else goes thru this don't forget to machine the wide part of the lip on the hub.


Given the way you wrote this, did you have a "rude awakening" when you attempted to bolt on the new rims? :wink:

How much did you have to machine the center hub section of the rotors or did you have the wheels machined instead?
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Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by slixtyfive »

Reading this post got me to thinking....

Has anyone checked to see if the spindle could be machined to accept any of the various 5x4.5 rotors available (and still work with the caliper position)?? i realize that would still involve a machine shop and cost $ but i think it might be a little cleaner than messing with re-drilling etc. I'm assuming the reason the rotors won't adapt is due to different bearing sizes etc. But if the profile of the 73-79 spindle could be turned down to match that of the spindles these other rotors come from, maybe they could work??? (paying attention to caliper/pad location as well)

Anyway - just thinking 'out loud' here............
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Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by Hillbilly63 »

RE; Reading this post got me to thinking....

I just went through this process and gave up. I own a salvage yard and have all types of new and used parts to try out.

Problem for me started when I built my tube straight axle using the stock 61 spindles, didn't think it would be a big deal to achieve a 4.5 bolt pattern. I should have listened to the guys down at Jim Meyer Racing, they recommended I use the early 40's Ford round back spindle instead.

My goal was to find a combination of parts that would yield a 4.5" bolt circle and have the correct clearance to mount a 15x4 Pro Star wheel

Here is what I tried :

The F150 rotor is a bolt on, no modifications or spacers, brackets for GM calipers are readily available. The back of the rotor hub needs to be machined flat for stud head seating and clearance , the outer hub wheel index also needs to be turned down ( some aftermarket rotors would get a bit thin in this area) The deal breaker for me was the overall length of the hub, it was to long to install the Pro Star center caps.

I also looked at may other combinations including the Volare and GM rotors, nothing was close.

I did have hope with the 11" Granada disc's and GM calipers in two different setups. This rotor will mount up by swapping the outer bearing set, problem is the spindle is to long. I thought of cutting off the end of the spindle and machining the outer spindle bearing surface in to take up the slack. This would have worked, but the rotor/caliper bracket offset wasn't even close to the spindle mounts ( no way to mount a bracket to the spindle). The best fix was adding a 8mm spacer behind the inner cone, the spacer also served as the seal surface, it was pressed on with a .0015" interference fit. The inner cone still has plenty of surface to sit on and one thread is left before the spindle nut bottoms out @ preload. The 8mm spacer also helped the caliper mounting problem, it allowed the 3/8" plate to mount between the rotor and spindle. I finally gave up after several failed attempts to make an offset plate to the caliper bracket .

The last one I mocked up was mounting a 2001 Mustang rotor to the back of the stock 61 F100 hub, the Mustang caliper had just enough room next to the spindle for mounting. This setup looked promising with some straight forward machining until I noticed the caliper mount has a tie in bar that sticks out past the wheel mounting surface. I had forgot that late model Mustangs can't run Pro Stars without wheel spacers.

So I scrapped my tube axle and started over with the early Ford spindles and 11" Granada Discs ... Problem solved
Last edited by Hillbilly63 on June 24, 2013, 11:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Dakota Kids
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Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by Dakota Kids »

We ended redrilling the Stock 74 rotors to 4.5 and we had the inner lip of the hub machined, $100 We are going to take a second set of rotors down for future use.
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Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by randyr »

Dakota Kids wrote:We ended redrilling the Stock 74 rotors to 4.5 and we had the inner lip of the hub machined, $100 We are going to take a second set of rotors down for future use.


Any chance you could post a pic of how that turned out? How much machining did you do on the hub? In other words, what size center hole in the wheel will fit over it?

Thanks
Chrisw

Re: Disk Swap with Dakota Rotors ???

Post by Chrisw »

I know this is over a year old but I would like to know how this worked
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