willysmjeeps.com

It's your Jeep. Do what you want. I would be leery that even though you're going from drums to discs, the improvement may only be minor since you'll still have manual brakes. I've got one of the Moses Luedel rebuild books and the only thing he doesn't suggest major changes on is brakes.

Wesk, I enjoy your input, and your knowledge of this vehicle has helped me make plenty of decisions on what I should get for the truck.
It is insight like yours that caused me to come over to this board, as opposed to a couple others I started on. I realize it is my Jeep, I know the main advice I will get is to keep it stock, and of course I'll decide for myself any non-original upgrades I make, I just wanted to get input.

wesk wrote:

Enjoy your Jeep and don't worry about the "Jeep Police."

I don't believe anyone was Jeep Policing him. He asked for pros and cons and we gave them to him. Each of us said it was his choice.

True, maybe I'm overly sensative.

When I started work on my M38 she was in pretty bad shape and needed alot of parts to bring her back so I was debating weather to go totally original or use more modern parts. While I was looking for information I was talking to a guy in the local Millitary Vehicle Club and he gave me some very good words of advice, what he said was do what ever you want but please do not do anything to it that cannot be reversed to stock at a later date. I ended up going the total stock route and I am enjoying the whole old school 1952 M38 ride with the old armstrong steering, the stiff suspension, and the manual brakes my friend calls it a real motoring experience. I agree it is good to be safe but if you take time to do a thorough job on your stock brake system and use good defensive driving habits leaving a little more space around you in traffic you should have no problems. If your feeling uncomfortable without all the new safety features maybe a newer green YJ might siut you better.

Good Luck Reddog

Look, I'm getting real tired of suggestions that I should just get a civilian jeep if I want to do anything to it.
As I previously stated, I like having a military jeep. I like that is is rugged, utilitarian, and made for combat. That said, I don't drive in parades and re-enactments. I have it for me. And while I want to keep it looking as stock as possible, and keep as many original parts on it as I can, I am going to upgrade to the few simple things that are safety issues. Like I said, I don't live on some country road in the middle of nowhere. Turn signals, brakes that stop when some kid is rolling down an incline in front of me and slams on the disc brakes in his KIA, seat belts, a rear view mirror, and gamma goat tail lights will let me keep it looking almost stock, as opposed to a mangled wreck. And if I ever want to return it to stock, they are simple bolt ons that I can remove.

I say don't do it. I don't think manual disc brakes will be much better than manual drums on a vehicle this light. Were you planning on putting a booster on it?

Here is another safety item related to brakes. Since you are planning on an overdrive you may have already been aware of "Herm the Overdrive Guy" and visited Herm's website. He also offers a bolt on dual reservoir brake adaptor that you may be interested in.
http://www.hermtheoverdriveguy.com/id2.htm