I'd like to hear from anyone who still has 4-wheel drums on a late A-body (73 & up) daily driver and is happy with them. I'm talking about the so-called 9" drums which are really 10" front/9" rear.

There's lots of info about how to do the disk conversion, but is there anyone who doesn't care to?

Mostly, those who say the drums are just fine tend to change their vote as soon as they drive the same car with discs. The improvement really is that large.

Brakes are like seatbelts: most of the time, we don't ask much of our brakes or our belts. That makes it easy to say thoughtless stuff like "I have drums and they're just fine" or "I've been driving for 45 years without a seatbelt, and I'm still here". But when we really need our brakes and belts, we really need our brakes and belts, and in that moment having *good* ones rather than just adequate ones (let alone inadequate ones) is worth all the gold in the world.

Stated another way: brake parts, even all of them needed for a swap, are a whole hell of a lot cheaper than replacement car body parts, and infinitely cheaper than replacement human body parts. Trying to talk yourself out of upgrading the brakes on a car driven regularly in today's traffic reality is kind of nutty.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Drum brakes are fine for loading a car on a trailer.

We are going to scream down the first guy who tells you drums are fine.

....we want to save your life.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Even one with factory disc is nothing to write home about.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

I had 4 wheel manual drums and coming down the mountain on my way home from work was a white knuckle experience. At a minimum manual discs, but even they are iffy. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

With 9" drums you get one stop from 70 MPH and you'll have little to nothing left over. I used to have bad dreams where I was pushing like mad on the brake pedal of my '66 Dart, but nothing happened even though the pedal felt fine. Those dreams, and the reality of 9" drums, got me to do my first disc swap. I have had several A bodies with 9" drums and only the cars I got rid of before knowing any better retained the front drums. A quick count shows I've converted at least 5 cars from 9" drum to disc. I've used 1973+ factory disc spindles for those swaps and never regretted it a moment.

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Joshua

Josh,
It's a little off topic, but how have you handled the bolt pattern problem, changing from 4" to 4.5" on the front? This is part of the reason I'm hesitant to do the swap.

I swap rear ends to make the whole car 4.5" bolt circle when I upgrade to disc brakes. Most factory small bolt pattern wheels are too narrow for my use. I hated that I had to run 185/75R14 tires on the '72 Duster. Thankfully I came into a set of small bolt pattern 14x7" wheels with 215/60R14 tires. Why wasn't that car swapped to the big bolt pattern? It was born with K-H disc brakes.

The first car I converted I actually swapped in the big bolt pattern 7 1/4 before doing the front brakes and master cylinder. I have bought quite a few A body rear ends and even a Ford Granada to replace small bolt pattern 7 1/4 rear ends. My race car had an A-body 8 3/4 with shortened C-body wagon axles and 10x2.5" brakes from an F-body 7 1/4.

It isn't cheap to get good brakes, wheels and tires on a small bolt pattern A-body, but it's worth it.

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Joshua

Remember, power brakes do not stop the car faster or better than non-power brakes. Power brakes just means an easier-to-push brake pedal.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

True, and I did a lot of both-feet pressing coming down that mountain! I really like the power discs I have now, thanks to a donor car I could do it all in one sitting.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

Also remember there are disc brakes and then there are disc brakes...even if we look at systems only one-at-a-time. Example: there are two different caliper types for the '73-up disc brakes. The '73-'75 calipers have a ø2.6" piston. The '76+ calipers have a ø2.75" piston, which means for any given master cylinder bore you have greater leverage over the calipers, which means any given amount of pedal pressure gives more stoption (a word I just made up). And master cylinder bore selection significantly affects pedal travel and hardness, and then there's pad material, presence/type of booster...

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

hi uncle d- i agree with you comments regarding the superiority of disc brakes over drum brakes. many of our sl6 vehicles have the combo brakes disc front and drum rear. anyway on another of my tankers i needed to adjust the rear drums. on the drum it had stamped max. diam 9.094. the drums had never been turned in 150k but i had replaced the shoes. the brake lather measured the diameter across the inside center which read between 9.1 and 9.2. figured they were worn too much so i bought new ones. surprised that most parts stores dont do this lathing anymore and tell you to just buy new drums when doing a brake job. also, used to be able to buy oversize brake shoes(lining), but no more. what do you think? bob f

On my truck the discs were cheaper to buy new than it was for the local "llantas" shop to turn them. But the new discs were made in China, so I had them turned. Better to have decades-old factory parts than questionable Chinese goods, IMO.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

hi coconut- seems that it is very tough to get non chinese replacement brake drums. hard to believe how bad the rep of these items is. my saturn rear drums were beyond safe diameter. could only find chinese drums new so put them on . will watch them closely. most of my old dodges were 4 wheel drum. didnt have discs then and didnt know any better.my major concern with drums was two: when they got wet you lost 75% of the braking for a while. got in habit of riding the brake for a minute or so to dry them out rather than wait for a panic stop;also a long or hard stop like rolling down mount vesuvius would lead to brake fade loss of about 75%. no real remedy for that except roll down in 2d to get some engine braking. seems its all about dough again. 4 wheel discs cost a lot more. curious do these new dodges have 4 wheel discs? regards bob f

It's getting to where everything is made there. Poorly.
Even worse in snow and ice; in my experience if they are not all adjusted exactly the same you're in for a wild ride on slick surfaces
Or swapping to power disc brakes


My Charger does

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.