Drum brakes

[Azmoparboy]

Hi All, Today I was looking though eBay and saw some brake drums that were 10" finned and would fit b100 Vans 71 Thur 73. Does anyone have info or opinions to using them on an ebody that is equipped with 10 inch drum brakes on the rear. On larger cars such as B and C body, they actually have an option that are 11 inch brake drums and that is what gave me the idea that would be nice to have a little better cooling ability to the drum if they would work well.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/For-1971-1973-Dodge-B100-Van-Brake-Drum-Rear-38641ZC-1972/392585097588

[usraptor]

If my understanding is correct E-bodies never came with 10" finned brake drums.  The 11" drums were finned but not the 10". I suppose it might depend on whether you are running 14 or 15" rims to have enough clearance between the drum fins and the off-set portion of the wheel so that they didn't rub.  I would also think that if this set up would work we would have seen numerous conversions/uses on the E-body forums discussing it but I've never seen it mentioned.  Also, if you use the compatibility chart on the eBay site it says they won't work with a E-Body.  Not sure why, bolt pattern, width, etc?  Hopefully, somebody with more knowledge that I have on the subject will chime in.

[Azmoparboy]

Thanks, that's good to know. I do have 15" rally wheels, not sure of the size of the wheels on a B van! My Challenge is not factory correct and just thought these drums would enhance the cooling performance.

[RUNCHARGER]

A B-van would have 15 inch wheels.

[fc7cuda]

I don't see any reason why the 10" finned wouldn't work.  Since the 15" rim was commonly used with 11" finned rear drums(69 and up), the 10" should have plenty of room to clear. 

[anlauto]

How much braking are you doing that going to require "extra cooling" ? Is this just for a street driven car or some sort of circle track race car ?

[Katfish]

Only reason I'd bother is if you have after market rims that have large openings allowing you to see the brakes.
I have 18" rims, the 11" finned drums are much larger and look better.
I hate the tiny brake look on larger rims.

Fronts do 70% of the braking, not a performance upgrade in most cases.

[Azmoparboy]

Good morning, 😃, I really do like hearing all of your opinions and reasoning about this.

When I built this car, which is a 1971 big block car, no numbers matching, I thought it would be cool to put a disk brake kit on it. I'm not liking them very much. The pads are not wearing correctly and the pads are becoming cocked and humming. So this is what got me to thinking 🤔 of just going back to factory original. This is a very nice driver and want it to be very reliable. I need quite a few parts to put the rear brakes back together and that's when I saw the finned 10" drums, and needed your input.

Here is a picture of it before I put the Rally Wheels on it, it has about 8000 miles on it now. Been driving it for over four years, had it to Las Vegas and Tucson.

Thanks again for your insight
Steve,
Azmoparboy

[Katfish]

Nice looking car, glad to hear you drive it often.
I'd suggest spending some time to see if you can sort out the issues with the disc setup before going back to drum brakes.