rear drum brakes on wagons?

[vladj]

i herd somewhere that wagons have bigger rear drums. Is that true? and what all do i need to swap it. since the junkyard here mostly have wagons.

thanks;

vlad

 

[joe_padavano]

i herd somewhere that wagons have bigger rear drums. Is that true? and what all do i need to swap it. since the junkyard here mostly have wagons.

thanks;

vlad

You heard incorrectly. The B-body wagons (Caprice, Custom Cruiser, etc.) came with bigger rear brakes (11" vs. 9.5"), not the G-body wagons. Note that the B-body wagons also got 12" front rotors vs. 11" on the sedans.

 

[vladj]

i herd somewhere that wagons have bigger rear drums. Is that true? and what all do i need to swap it. since the junkyard here mostly have wagons.

thanks;

vlad

You heard incorrectly. The B-body wagons (Caprice, Custom Cruiser, etc.) came with bigger rear brakes (11" vs. 9.5"), not the G-body wagons. Note that the B-body wagons also got 12" front rotors vs. 11" on the sedans.

cool. what do i need to swap the front and rear brakes onto my 79 cutlass? also is it a direct swap?

thanks;

vlad

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Neither the front nor the rear brake swaps are easy when going from B to G. The B wagon uses a different lug pattern that a G does, and to top it all off, the brake backing plate mounting flange is completely different. For the trouble, your money is better spent on a disc upgrade than a drum upgrade. As for the front, that has been done many times. I am planning a version of it for my car that involves the requisite custom upper control arms to mount the B car spindles. However, the bump steer geometry is not very good on a G body, and the B spindle only makes it worse. This is the engineering problem I am attempting to tackle: How to have my improved camber roll geometry while fixing the nasty bump steer problem at the same time, and trying to gain a bit of caster in the mix while I am at it. I have a few ideas, but they are only theories right now. I simply don't have the cash to play with them just yet. At any rate, there are cheaper alternatives if all you wish to do is upgrade the brakes but leave the geometry where GM put it in the mid 70's.