Brake shoes help (8 3/4 BBP)

72bluNblu said
Measure the depth of the drums from the 8.75 and the 7.25. Did the drums from the 8.75 actually fit? I mean, do they mount up on the axle flange without spacers and without hitting the backing plates? Because if the backing plates and shoes are 10x1.75", the drums for those brakes are not the same depth as the BBP 10x2.5" drums. Is there more than one set of bolt holes drilled in the 8.75" drums?

I suppose the other possibility is that the 8 3/4 axles are in fact BBP with a BBP axle flange offset and someone put the SBP 10x1.75" backing plates and shoes back on there, but with a set of BBP 10x2.5" drums. Obviously you can't use the BBP drums with a SBP axle flange offset, the drum hits the backing plate because the axle flange isn't out far enough. But, I don't know how it would line up if you used a BBP axle flange offset with the SBP backing plate and a BBP drum. Obviously you'd have a lot of unused drum surface, even if nothing interfered, because you'd have a 1.75" wide shoe riding around in a drum wide enough for a 2.5" wide shoe.

That would actually be a decent scenario for you though if that's the case, because if that's what happened you could just install the BBP 10x2.5" backing plates and you'd be ready to go. One of the set ups you have either doesn't or won't fit, it's just a matter of which one is wrong. The SBP ones that are on there now, or the BBP ones you want to use.

Did they fit? I don't know that I can answer that. They were on there alright, but I was a bit shocked to see mag lugs holding the non-mag wheels on there. The car is a bit of a mess, although the body parts look pretty good! Lots of black widows under there made the trip with the car, by the way!

And yeah... a TON of unused drum surface. Those shoes are cracked and all beat up. And covered with some sort of weird reddish orange rubbery substance (not the actual braking surface but everything else).

Will definitely check again but I measured the depth and width of both my old 7.25 drums and the 8.75 drums and came up with the same numbers everywhere. The bolt pattern for the 8.75 drums is LBP and all holes are round and normal looking (no obvious evidence of drilling). I was happy about this as my old drums are in better shape than the 8.75's and figured I'd use them.

One thing I forgot to mention: the car was sold to me "with brake problems." I assumed the seller (whose dad handled the deal but no idea how much either one of them understood what they were doing) didn't know all the details. I thought the leaking wheel cylinders were the culprits but perhaps the whole thing was screwed up from the beginning with all the mixed up parts. I don't think the car was moved for like 10 years. But I still managed to fire her up and drive her onto a trailer... at least the front brakes were working okay and stopped the car.

I will say that I had to back the star wheel off a LOT to get those drums off.

I'm just going to try to find a moment this weekend to pull out one axle and try my 7.25 backing plate on there.

72bluNblu - it's a shame you're not slightly closer (I'm down in Novato). I have a feeling you'd get a kick out of this car. Also, your Demon build has been a great source of inspiration for my work on my Duster.