Quote:
Originally Posted by ElGracho
You guys are right. Both housings are the same width the parts in either housing would fit the other housing.
You can swap axles and drums to make a 2wd into a 4wd and vice versa. The 4 wheel drives all had the big (2 3/4" wide) brakes while the 2 wheel drive stuff could be had with the 2" or 2 3/4" brakes. I've never had a truck with the small brakes, I think they were mostly on the bare bones type trucks.
You can swap the whole backing plate and drums from the 2wd onto the 4wd housing and use all of your original brake parts OR you can use the big brake backing plates from the 4wd and get some new 5 lug heavy duty drums.
If your brakes worked well in the first place, I'd reuse them, then you don't have to mess with the parking brake cables either. They are a pain...
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The 2wd axle was in a bare bones forest service swb, 4.3, 4-speed truck. I don't think they could be had any more bare bones than that!
The brakes shoes were down past the rivets and the drums showed that.
Also, after driving the crew around the block, the wheel cylinder on one side leaked brake fluid badly and it was quite a mess once the drums were pulled off. Smelled pretty good too!
This is in my crew project so I think it would be in my best interest to get the best brakes possible. When we converted the front end to 1/2 ton I bought all new parts for the 1-1/4" rotors.