B-body drums on the front of a 65 Cuda?

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highwaystar

highwaystar

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I picked up a complete set of 11" drums front and back from a 69 Charger with front spindles and upper control arms. Will this work on my 65 Cuda with a new dual reservoir master cylinder, and updated proportioning valve to get my 4 1/2" bolt pattern and a upgrade in my braking?
Will this push the wheels out on the front towards the fender or change the front end geometry in any bad way?
Thanks for any information that some folks have experienced.
Highwaystar
 
Why??? That is like a B-body taxi setup. If you need to get better stopping power and a lot less headaches with a conversion from what you have. Go with the Disco-tech article or buy a complete kit.
 
The drums and spindles will work but the UCAs are specific to A and B body cars. You'd need UCAs with the larger upper ball joint.
This isn't a bad setup. Discs would be better but an 11" drum is a huge improvement over a 9" drum setup!
 
Make those 11 inchers power drum brakes. The power drums on the 69 Fury I had stopped better than my 89 Dakota and 97 Ram.
 
Wait until they get wet... Nothing better than disc brakes in the rain/water. Nothing more exciting than a panic stop in the rain with drums..
 
MoparLeo said:
Why??? That is like a B-body taxi setup. If you need to get better stopping power and a lot less headaches with a conversion from what you have. Go with the Disco-tech article or buy a complete kit.
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Couple reasons. Price .. Picked the set up with new wheel cylinders, drums, and shoes for $200. Using the back for the conversion, so I only ha e $100 in the front. 2nd. Dr Diff., Mancini, and everyone else I checked on is out of the disc brake set-up currently. 3rd, my 70 Roadrunner stops beautifully with the same set up. Any more info on geometry change would be helpful.
Thank you
 
Like Kern Dog said, this will work good but you need 73-76 A body upper control arms. You have it and the price is right, so go for it. Will be a big improvement over the small drums.
 
Four 11" drums on an early A? Ever weigh an 11" drum? Rotational inertia is huge.
Good way to slow your car down, not only decelerating but accelerating.
 
ragtopfury said:
Make those 11 inchers power drum brakes. The power drums on the 69 Fury I had stopped better than my 89 Dakota and 97 Ram.
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Man, you're not kidding ! Buddy had a '70 300 with power 4wheel drum set-up, and that boat stopped on a dime !! Blew away my '67 GTX non power drums.
 
KosmicKuda said:
Four 11" drums on an early A? Ever weigh an 11" drum? Rotational inertia is huge.
Good way to slow your car down, not only decelerating but accelerating.
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Heavier, but alot less brake drag on drum brakes. Ask any old time drag racer, most preferred the drum for less drag. The newer race disc setups will have springs on the pads to pull them off the rotor to help with brake drag, but stock disc brakes will have much more brake drag than drum.
 
highwaystar said:
Heavier, but alot less brake drag on drum brakes. Ask any old time drag racer, most preferred the drum for less drag.
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Yeah I know all that. They also removed the self adjusters. It's not just the static weight.
A 2022 Honda Civic has a listed weight of 2877-3126 lbs, comparable to a first gen cuda. See 11" drums under there? Or on a drag strip?

Old time? I bought my first Barracuda in 1969 and just retired after 47 yrs in mechanical engineering and used 3D modeling and FEA. Not just to verify strength, but to eliminate weight and material. You think 3D printing is new? I first did it in 1994. Sent the part files on a 3-1/2" floppy to Michigan so I've been around.
 
I would stick with your current setup until a disk conversion was possible. I realize that you will see a small difference in braking, but 1) you will still have drum brakes, and 2) the money you spend on this conversion could go towards a disk conversion. No matter how little you think you will have in the drum-to-drum conversion, you will wind up with more than you think. That is the way it always works out. I just can't see doing a drum-to-drum conversion.
 
MoparLeo said:
Wait until they get wet... Nothing better than disc brakes in the rain/water. Nothing more exciting than a panic stop in the rain with drums..
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Yup. itll turn that brake pedal into a hard clutch pedal! Then when they dry in a few rotations they grab and lock. Not fun.
 
That's pretty much the setup we used on short-track cars. Go for it- you'll need the big ball joint upper control arms anyway, so if you wanted to change to discs in the the future, it will be a breeze.
Won't work on your rear end, though; unless you upgrade to 4.5" axles.
They ran the 11x3s in NASCAR, too (and back then they raced in the rain :)).
 
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Professor Fate said:
That's pretty much the setup we used on short-track cars. Go for it- you'll need the big ball joint upper control arms anyway, so if you wanted to change to discs in the the future, it will be a breeze.
Won't work on your rear end, though; unless you upgrade to 4.5" axles.
They ran the 11x3s in NASCAR, too (and back then they raced in the rain :)).
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Thats what I was thinking. I could go to disc at a later date. I am putting the larger 4.5" pattern axles in rear.
 
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