Need help on what to do (rear brake drums)

[motoRAT]

Hello again, I’m back asking for your help and knowledge
I need a new set of rear brake drums, I have a wide five pattern drums in a four pattern 40mm shoes, I made a spacer to fit it like so, my question is, as I’m going to need to buy both the drum and the shoes, does the 30mm shoes are a better solution for the wide five drum? And does it fit on the 40mm back plate? Or should I keep the 40mm shoes and fit the drums with the spacer as it currently does?
I would buy a set of 181 drums but they are both expensive and rare
Thanks for any help or guiding points
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Be curious, dismantle it all, reassemble it, go for a ride!

[EVfun]

Well, there are Thing drums, these conversion drums, or trying to machine enough space into new '58-'64 drums to fit the wider brakes. I hear this works with some thin spacers so you can use the drum right to the inside edge.

Other than that, you can convert back to '65-'67 rear brakes. You will need good used backing plates, new wheel cylinders, and 30mm shoes.
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[joescoolcustoms]

I machined a set of rear drums for a buggy I built a couple years ago. I bought new '66 - '67 drums, machined the outside wear surface about an additional 1/4 inch, used the late '68 up backing plates with '68 up wheel cylinders and brake shoes. This was for a short axle/short spline swing axle tranny.

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[BL3Manx]

So Cal Import has the Thing drums in stock.

http://www.socalautoparts.com/product_info.php/ind...05-p-13062

Even so, I would go with Joe's solution. Just be a kinda careful after you have them machined and reassemble and torque them to check very closely for any binding or interference, before you takeoff down the highway at full speed.

[joescoolcustoms]

Thing drums work great if you have long splines, if not, there is not very much meat left for strength after they have been machined to fit a short spline.

They also add about 1 1/2 inches per side in positive off set. For some, that is good, for some, it is bad because it pushes the wheel out from under the fender even more on a buggy.

I have several sets of the Thing rear drums and have tried them several different ways.
_________________
Bad News Racing 2018 NORRA 1000 3rd in Class
Best Day Ever Racing 2022 NORRA 1000 2nd in Class and first All Female team to complete the race

Everyone is gifted. Some just do not open the package.

Looks like it was painted with a live chicken,polished with a brick and buffed with a pine cone

[motoRAT]

thanks for all the help and info, I'll see what I can do
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Be curious, dismantle it all, reassemble it, go for a ride!

[Sharp64]

I'm trying to wrap my head around this. I have a buggy with a swing axle tranny and needing to upgrade my rear brakes to the wider 40mm shoes. I don't have machining skills so what are my options for bolt on besides a disk brake kit? I'm assuming the axles are short spline, not 100% sure exactly how to check.
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1960 Indigo Blue Ragtop (Blue Barry)
1967 Ghia
1985 Westy Money Pit
“...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.” - Michael Caine

[EVfun]

[Sharp64]

[EVfun]

I popped over to look at your posted pictures. It looks like you have a short axle and short axle spline transaxle. The wheels are quite deep. All the stock short axles are short spline. 1967 long axles are short spline, 1968 long axles, and IRS Bugs, are long spline.

I would start with the question, why do you want to convert to 40mm wide shoes, and are you sure you currently have 30mm wide shoes? Converting to 40mm means you need to replace the backing plates and pretty much everything that hangs on the backing plate. One upside is the ability to swap around wheel cylinders to balance braking, but a proportioning valve in the front is another way to do that. After assembling the backing plates you need to get some drums that fit.

You will need to use the adapter drums, Thing drums (significant increase in rear track, hub will need to be machined down), or try and remachine your drums to get room for the wider pads. The change to long splines and 4 lug happened in the USA the same year as the 40mm wide rear brakes. The result is that there is no easy way to run wide 5 drums with wide brakes. The adapter drum is easiest, but not cheap!

My buggy is running stock '64 brakes with a dual circuit master cylinder and it works pretty well so long as I don't run really skinny front tires (135R15.) I may add a proportioning valve in the future to dial the front brakes back a little more.
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[clonebug]

Just bite the bullet and get rear discs......You know you want to......

For about $300.00 you can have any bolt pattern you want and never have to adjust the brakes in back again.

Mind you the Empi Kits are not exactly a bolt on experience but with a little work you will never have to mess with them again.

Mine are Chevy/Porsche pattern but they are available in wide 5 and 4 lug also.
You can probably switch to discs for less than new drums, backing plates, shoes and hardware.
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[Sharp64]

Reason for wanting to change over to larger brakes is I seem to be locking the fronts too easily under hard braking. I’ve adjusted both front and back so they just drag, bled the lines using the slow pump and hold then bleed method and have good pedal but the rears just don’t feel like they are doing as much as they should. I do need to pull the rear drums anyways as one of the lug holes sis stripped so I figured if I’m replacing the drums anyways I might as well go bigger. Possibly part of my problem is the poor weight distribution, but there’s little I can do about that at this time as I’m not prepared to cut the hood to move the tank. Maybe Ill have to consider discs for the rear.
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1960 Indigo Blue Ragtop (Blue Barry)
1967 Ghia
1985 Westy Money Pit
“...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.” - Michael Caine

[VW Aircooled Society]

Following
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[EVfun]

[BL3Manx]

[vwracerdave]

You could also consider putting rear Type III rear brakes on. They are larger then Bug so better braking. You can find plenty of information on the conversion in the HBB Off-Road Forums.
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[BL3Manx]

[EVfun]

[BL3Manx]

Type 3 rear drums require long splines

[parmaynu]