Jerrod Jones
Former Editor, Off Road
Brakes are one of the most important systems on your 4x4 and need to be built with overkill in mind. More important than being able to accelerate fast, climb a rock face, or jump a dune, you eed to be able to stop your metal slingshot before you accidentally run over a family of jackalopes. And if you're reading this magazine and own a Jeep, then we're going to assume that you might have slightly larger than average tires. Needless to say, we're guessing that your braking performance isn't much better than a freight train, and that you need to get some better stoppers on your Jeep fast. But before you run out and drop a cool C-note on Drunken Dan's one-size-fits-all disc retrofit kit, remember two important things. First, many calipers take different amounts of brake fluid to compress the pistons, something which no universal kit will account for. Second, it is not OK to get rid of your emergency/parking brake.
We really like Teraflex's disc-brake kit that puts some good grabbing disc brakes in the rear, with a secondary drum-brake emergency/parking brake hidden inside the hat of each one-piece rotor. They can be ordered for any newer rear Jeep axle or axle with "big" Ford housing ends, and for less than $500 (our wallets like that).
The Teraflex disc brake comes with new backing plates/caliper supports with drum-brake shoes already mounted and ready to go. A solid rotor handles the main stopping duties with pressure from a single-piston caliper. New brake pull cables are also included, along with a bearing spacer. The only things you'll need to buy are new bearings and axle seals. Since we were doing this brake kit on a Dana 44 rear axle, we used Set 10 Timken bearings and 9912 National Seal seals.
Who: Teraflex
What It Is: Rear disc-brake kit with incorporated drum-style parking brake
What It Comes With: Calipers, rotors, backing plate with drum shoes, brake hoses, hardware, brake cables for drum brakes
How Much It'll Set You Back: Under $500
