66 valiant drum brakes question

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nephlyte

nephlyte

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Well, i need some brake pads for my 66 valiant 200. Its got 4 wheel drum brakes and 13" wheels.

So i go to the parts store and they want to know if its 9, 10, or 11 inch brakes? Bah! I just wanted some brake pads.

Does it vary from model to model or is the parts store just idiots and there is only one size for this model?

I would just take them off and compare them to the ones in the store, but i only have one vehicle at the moment.
 
I am willing to bet you have 9" drums! I had 9" drums on my 66, slant six car.
 
The '66 Valiants originally came with 9" or 10" drum brakes.
The cars with six cylnder engines had 9" and the V-8 cars had 10".
If you have a slant six engine it probably has 9" brakes.
 
nephlyte said:
Well, i need some brake pads for my 66 valiant 200. Its got 4 wheel drum brakes and 13" wheels.

So i go to the parts store and they want to know if its 9, 10, or 11 inch brakes? Bah! I just wanted some brake pads.

Does it vary from model to model or is the parts store just idiots and there is only one size for this model?

I would just take them off and compare them to the ones in the store, but i only have one vehicle at the moment.
Click to expand...

You have drum brakes, thus you do not have brake pads.
You have brake shoes.

Best bet is to check in the Parts for sale area on this site for a '73-'76 A body disc brake setup, if you intend to keep this car...

Moving to the conversion brings you inexpensive parts replacements.

You will have to factor in the expense of new wheels with the LBC 4.5 " pattern and rear axles that do the same. You could get away with just re-drilling the bolt pattern on the rear drums.

Good luck with your decisions on this.
 
Just take the drum off the front and measure it across the rear diameter, see what you get. You can't assume anything with a car thats been around for 42 years. It could have been changed perhaps.
 
Vs29H1B said:
You have drum brakes, thus you do not have brake pads.
You have brake shoes.

Best bet is to check in the Parts for sale area on this site for a '73-'76 A body disc brake setup, if you intend to keep this car...

Moving to the conversion brings you inexpensive parts replacements.

You will have to factor in the expense of new wheels with the LBC 4.5 " pattern and rear axles that do the same. You could get away with just re-drilling the bolt pattern on the rear drums.

Good luck with your decisions on this.
Click to expand...

I think its arbitrary that there has to be two words for the same device.

I'm just looking for the things that make my car go 'stop'.

I don't really have any plans of changing this car to disc brakes. I can stop on a dime with my 4 wheel drums and the brake shoes are like 14 bucks for a pair, i don't see how it gets cheaper than that.

It could be quite an ordeal switch to disc brakes (including hunting for the parts, downtime for the car, inevitable mistakes i'll make along the way and apparently new wheels!). I don't think that i would ever recoup my losses for the switch, even if the brake pads are cheaper than the shoes.
 
buddyralf said:
Just take the drum off the front and measure it across the rear diameter, see what you get. You can't assume anything with a car thats been around for 42 years. It could have been changed perhaps.
Click to expand...

Excellent, this actually helps me a whole lot. They are 9", which isn't surprising since this car has OEM EVERYTHING! (including the radio). I wouldn't expect the owners to have changed the drum brake size.

So thanks to everyone for helping me hammer this out without having to walk a few miles to the parts store.
 
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