Brake shoes.

[Old Mike]

I was rummaging through some of the old threads and I decided to cut to the chase. I’m going to do the brakes on my ‘71 Newport (it’s been around 40 years since I did drums) and I wanted to know if the 2.75” shoes are standard. It’s a base level car, 383 2bbl, no power brakes, low option (a/c and pass side mirror), so I’m thinking base level everything.

 

[Big_John]

The only way you can be sure what's there is to pull the drums and measure.

There are a lot of variables that caused Chrysler to put brake shoes with different widths on their cars, including some sold new in other countries. Then add in years of unknown mechanics and parts swapping to keep cars running etc. Chances are good that whatever is listed for your car is right, but there's a significant chance that it's wrong too.

Long story short.... Pull the drums and measure. You may save some time and money.

 

[3175375]

The only way you can be sure what's there is to pull the drums and measure.

There are a lot of variables that caused Chrysler to put brake shoes with different widths on their cars, including some sold new in other countries. Then add in years of unknown mechanics and parts swapping to keep cars running etc. Chances are good that whatever is listed for your car is right, but there's a significant chance that it's wrong too.

Long story short.... Pull the drums and measure. You may save some time and money.

Once you know what you have, @mobileparts…. Q.E.D.

 

[CBODY67]

Width of the lining/shoes, NOT the contact width of the drum.

 

[Old Mike]

The only way you can be sure what's there is to pull the drums and measure.

There are a lot of variables that caused Chrysler to put brake shoes with different widths on their cars, including some sold new in other countries. Then add in years of unknown mechanics and parts swapping to keep cars running etc. Chances are good that whatever is listed for your car is right, but there's a significant chance that it's wrong too.

Long story short.... Pull the drums and measure. You may save some time and money.

OK. Thanks

 

[Big_John]

Width of the lining/shoes, NOT the contact width of the drum.

You are 100% correct that the brakes width is measured at the shoes, but there are times where someone used a narrower shoe to replace the original instead of the correct width shoe. Lots of things happened to these cars in 50-60 years. Bad backyard and used car lot repairs are unfortunately way too common.

So, easy enough, you measure both to be sure. The shoe width should be about 3/8-1/2" narrower than the drum "depth".

As I was going to post this, I remembered a thread from last month where this happened.

Front Drum Width