Power Brakes?

Question

My dad has a 1973 Jeep CJ-5 car for his postal job and its old, so it does not have power brakes. What parts do I need to get power brakes and can you install yourself, or does a auto shop have to do it.?
Thanks.

Answer 1

I will tell you what there dude, if by power brakes you mean disc brakes then you've got another thing coming. Chances are very good that he has drum brakes, and no they don't stop you very well. Converting to disc brakes is very expensive and time consuming. You would be much better off having a shop install them. If your still interested there are huge amount of forums and websites dedicated to jeeps. Try using any search engine and "jeeps parts suspension/disc brakes." If his brakes are not working well then they may just need the rotors "turned" (smoothed out in laymens terms), or they may just need new pads. If you can turn a wrench, and have a couple tools, then they are not that difficult to fix/replace. If you plan on going that route then it may be a good idea to take one side apart and leave the other partly disassembled so you can reference that side if you get something turned around. Good Luck

Answer 2

First off, you probably need a brake booster and the associated parts. The CJ-5 came with boosted or unassisted brakes, which is good news because it means the parts you need are standard.

You'll need the booster and the associated vacuum plumbing, it's not just the booster, the other parts are not expensive but they are essential.

If you want to convert to disk brakes it isn't difficult. Basically the jeeps are so well known that it's all been done before and the required mounting hardware just bolts on. The company at the link below is one of the many that can sell you the parts. They have options for powered and non-powered drum to disk conversions and they have various sizes too. What more could you want. Looks like front conversions only, but the front end does the vast majority of the braking.

If I was you I'd give them a call, they'll know whether one of the disk conversions (for roughly $800-$1k) will do the job or you should go for the power and the disk conversion.

When I strip down the front brakes on my vehicles to change the disks I have them down to what you need to do for this, it takes me about two to three hours, without power tools and without hurrying, to do fronts and rears.

By the way, turning rotors is a con. You won't find a brake shop in Europe that would bother. Like 3,000 mile oil changes it's something they sold to the US public in the past and keep on selling them.

Answer 3

im just guessing...so no promisses...but if PB was available on that vehicle...i think just buying the brake booster and whichever master cylinder mounts to it would work...then hook a vacum line from the intake to the booster. ta-da...
if PB wasnt available...find a donor vehicle similar, but the same process, you might have to adapt things like brake lines though.
i estimate $100 for booster and master cylinder...then another 50 to custom make something that will let your brake lines fit to whatever master cylinder you use....