Anyone gone back to rear drums?

[Miley]

I'm tired of not having a mechanical e-brake. And, I am not feeling like dishing out $1400 to Currie just to have a new housing, axles, and Explorer brakes when all I want is the brakes.

I'm seriously considering yanking the GM rear discs and going back to drum. The reality is that I never had an issue with my rear drums. Not on the street, trail, or otherwise. The fact is I got caught up in the craze and jumped on board before thinking it through.

Anyone else felt this way? Anyone here put the drums back on?

Miley

 

[73stallion]

why not put a hydraulic line lock in?

 

[Miley]

why not put a hydraulic line lock in?

Did it. It's not mechanical. If I loose hydro, the line lock becomes useless.

Miley

 

[73stallion]

strange. when i was riding with luke at bronco daze '03 he had a lock lever under his dash. he'd apply the brake pedal, then lock the lever. that kept the rear pressure built until he released the lever.

 

[craigaria]

I'll trade you my brakes for yours!

 

[PS]

I never changed from my drum rears - I figured with power discs in the front I never needed rear discs, there's plenty of stopping power and I spent the money on other stuff. That being said, I do have this sitting in my garage waiting for installation:

http://www.highangledriveline.com/driveline_e-brake-cutting brake.htm

This might be an answer to your problem.

It's the old "Belt & Suspenders" theory.

 

[Miley]

strange. when i was riding with luke at bronco daze '03 he had a lock lever under his dash. he'd apply the brake pedal, then lock the lever. that kept the rear pressure built until he released the lever.

Line locks are actuated by the primary hydraulic brake system. The mechanical e-brake on ALL DOT approved consumer vehicles is actuate mechanicall via cables, linkages, etc. They have absolutely no reliance on hydro at all.

If for some reason I lost my hydraulic brakes on a trail, I could not get home without a mechanical brake (emergency) brake. I want more than just a temporary parking brake. I want a true EMERGENCY brake that is its on separate system like the original drum brakes offered.

Miley

 

[73stallion]

very good point, never thought about that. i lived in colorado for a while, you don't want to loose all braking out there!

 

[Miley]

I'll trade you my brakes for yours!

Thanks for the offer, but I already have a local offer to buy the setup.

The reason for this post is this: I was considering selling my BB 9" w/ 31 spline Mosers and rear discs for $550. (minus the pumpkin of course) Then, add $800 to that and order up the Currie setup. But then I got to thinking about all the sh... I mean gifts I could get my wife (me) for Christmas if I just sold the current setup and replaced it with drums again.

Fact is, I never had a problem with my drums. True, I do agree that discs offer some clear advantages, but I'm having a hard time seeing $800 worth of advantage to do it "right".

BTW... any vehicle driven on public roads in the U.S. is required to have a MECHANICAL e-brake to be DOT legal.

Miley

Miley

 

[Gummi Bear]

Miley,

I've got a couple of sources here in the D/FW area that can get the Explorer disc setup for the 9" a whole lot cheaper than Currie sells it for.

Try Russ at Baertrax:
972-406-9363

or Lance at Sunray Engineering (the real 9" authority) ;D :
817-594-9201

From what I gather, it's pretty much a bolt on affair.

All that being said, my drums still do the job pretty well for me. I will not have a rig without a working emergency brake, that's just asking for trouble if you don't.

 

[craigaria]

Was worth a try, anyhow...

 

[Duke Nukem]

After I completed my front disc conversion I was seriously thinking about going 4-wheel disc. I started doing research and even acquired some caddy calipers. But after I came across a few negative threads concerning rear discs I decided that having rear drums was just fine. My bronco stops great with front discs and rear drums. Even my wife's 2002 vehicle has rear drum brakes. Given the effort and expense it just didn't seem to have enough upside to make it worth my while. Maybe I'll do it someday but it is way down there on my list of things to do.

 

[Jeepster]

A key element for properly working drum brakes is a working parking brake and the use of it daily. This is what keeps the shoes in proper adjustment which = > stopping power. I would dare say that 90% of all people with automatics dont even use the parking brake. Hello! Why is it called a PARKING BRAKE? ;D My thoughts are that going to rear disk would help if one were running larger tires because of the greater leverage created there.

 

[thumping]

You might want to consider a transfer case brake. It's a rotor and caliper on the rear out put shaft of the case. I'm working on gathering parts now. I thinking about using the front disc setup off a 650 Night Hawk street bike. I can use the e-brake handle out of a Mustang II or Pinto to actuate the master cylinder. They sell after market kits for this but I think I can build my own for a lot less $$$. It’s still a fluid braking system but it is separate from the main system. I believe all that will need to be done is boring the center of the disc to fit the rear yoke and welding it on. Then making a bracket to hold the caliper and the master cylinder shouldn’t be much of a problem. I busted a wheel cylinder on the trail once and lost all brakes. Luckily I wasn’t anywhere to bad and put it in neutral and came to a stop. Pinching a line off to get out of the woods sucks. Just a thought because I feel the same way about only having one braking system.

thumping

 

[roundhouse]

How about adding another caliper and using a hydraulic parking brake, with a seperate master cyl and lines,?

 

[Miley]

I'm really only considering two options at this point; explorer discs or bronco drums.

Driveline ebrakes are ok, but if I'm coming down a pass and my brakes are shot, a driveline ebrake has more potential of throwing me into a spin unless I lock the rear differential.... it's just the nature of the beast.

Secondary hydraulic systems are not an option because they are not DOT approved. This is important to me because I used to volunteer with the Colorado Forestry Division and mechanical ebrakes are a requirement. (even though the ones on most of the cherokees did not work %) )

To each his own. The gm setup works great for regular braking, but a lot of safety elements are removed to accommodate them. Personally, I'm beginning to look forward to reinstalling the drums and the added safety of the factory proportioning valve that will automatically bypass the front or rear in the event of hydraulic failure in that system.

Like I said, I got caught up in the hype of needing rear discs and jumped on the bandwagon. Thinking it's time to fall off of it now and get back to what works.

Miley

 

[S/C-HD2002]

Driveline e-brakes would also be useless if you had a driveline failure too. I guess you would be in a complete world of $#@! if your hydro brake system failed and your rear driveline was also gone.

At that point I would say it would be best to find you nearest "soft" target and scrub some speed. ;D

The only other advantage to having rear disks is the caliper acts as a "safety"
not allowing the axle shaft to walk out of the housing. Some may say, how often does that happen. I speak from experience that having rear drums would have been a whole new world of hurt for me.

I had a rear bearing go and it took the bearing reatainer out too. The axle began to walk out of the housing, but fortunately the caliper kept the axle assembly in place. With a drum rear, the axle and wheel and tire would have gone by-by at highway speeds.

This is just like when you see a C clip rearend fail and out goes the axle shaft.

I do agree, the parking brake calipers are kind of weak.

 

[Sbolt19]

Just my adding to the rear axle walking out, that is scary as h-e double hockey stick!! I was in college and was 10 miles north of Denver about 9 years ago when my pass side blew. The only thing that kept me from losing the whole shootin match was my fenders weren't cut. The tire would rub then go back in for a few seconds. It took me 2x hearing that and I stopped to look what was going on. I ended up with a 3 hour wait for my dad to get a trailer and come up from Colo. Springs to tow me home.

 

[TOFIC]

I'm tired of not having a mechanical e-brake. And, I am not feeling like dishing out $1400 to Currie just to have a new housing, axles, and Explorer brakes when all I want is the brakes.

I'm seriously considering yanking the GM rear discs and going back to drum. The reality is that I never had an issue with my rear drums. Not on the street, trail, or otherwise. The fact is I got caught up in the craze and jumped on board before thinking it through.

Anyone else felt this way? Anyone here put the drums back on?

Miley

Miley::

Dont give up yet!!! Have you got the Eldorado calipers on yours?? These have an Ebrake setup on them and they do work. Check some rear disc threads for the years you need. The other option is the lincoln discs.
Personally, I would not give up on the discs. the safety aspect in wet conditions far outway the pitfalls
Drop me a note and we can go over this if you want
TOFIC

 

[bmc69]

I've posted this before but will restate for this thread. I had all the pieces and parts to go with 4-wheel disk (rear D60) annd hydroboost. I did the hydroboost first and immediately forgot all about the rear disk conversion..I already have more stopping power than I know what to do with and the rear brakes lock up just a wee bit before the front, just like you want anyway. I'm using a parkling brake handle from an Audi between the seats (so that it truly can be used as an 'emergency' brake to get you home, unlike the stock pedal) but the e-brake setup is otherwise all stock....which is nice.