I'm starting to put things back together, and I was thinking about doing a brake upgrade on the front axles to 11" drums with self adjusters over the original 9" drums.

What is the best (and hopefully cheapest) way to do this? I found a kit at http://www.the-jeep-guy.com/brakes.htm, but I'm not sure if that's the best way to go. I'd also like to keep the stock wheel size, so I obviously don't want to get anything so large that I'd have to change the wheels.

Has anyone done this?

I purchased and installed the 11" up-grade kit about 15 years ago, and glad I did.  I did have to get new wheels (I used white spokes), but later learned that a little hammer work on the wheels would make them fit the 11" drums. My mistake was selling the original old wheels to a guy who made a trailer, and used them on it.  Jim

mrman5917 wrote on 08/08/11 at 02:04:18:

No, I never said that. What I said was that a short wheelbase magnifies the problem created with mismatched brakes.

mrman5917 wrote on 08/08/11 at 02:04:18:

Modern disc brakes are an entirely different horse; dual master cylinders and line pressure compensators for starters. The shoes on drum brakes are retracted away from the surface of the drum when not being used. That's not the case with disc brakes. On disc brakes the pads are not retracted and are always in contact with the rotor but no pressure is being applied. That's why you'll replace three sets of front disc pads before you ever need to even look at the rear shoes. When you apply pressure to the brake pedal, compensators regulate how the two different systems are applied, so you can see they are entirely different from the Bendix system used on these jeeps.

Keep this in mind as well, the brakes on these jeeps are not self-actuating, meaning the rotation of the drum does not increase braking by applying more pressure on the shoes. Most 11" brakes are self-actuating so it's not just the size difference that makes them more efficient. With 11" self-actuating brakes on the front and 9" Bendix type on the rear you are always at risk of the fronts locking up. That's OK if you're doing 30 mph on dry pavement, in a straight line but, on wet pavement? in a curve? on stones? There's a reason these flatfenders are prone to rollovers; high CG, short wheelbase, narrow track. Mis-matched brakes increase the risk.

Larry

Thanks for the reply.

Did you use a kit to do the upgrade, or a junkyard swap? Did you use a dual reservoir master cylinder when you did your swap? The 11" drums and a dual master were really the only major changes I was going to make to the Jeep.

Thanks Jim. I think when it comes time to put the brakes back on to the axles I'll give the normal suppliers a call and see what they have. If I can't find what I'm looking for, I'll try the site I linked to in the first post. Should be able to find something I would guess...

I think I'm going for something similar, not completely stock, but at least "stock looking" for the untrained eye. I'm not planning on doing any serious 4 wheeling, but just driving around town before I started the tear down I noticed that it took an awful lot of effort and distance to stop. Even at 40 MPH, the distance required is just too much when people are all to eager to jump in front of you only to slam on their brakes to make the next turn. Pretty sure I scared the s*** out of a few people when they realized the old Jeep isn't able to stop on a dime Same goes for seat belts, sure it's not original, but having a little extra safety and not being thrown out in the middle of a turn or when hitting a good hole in the trail or road sure makes up for whatever it loses in originality.

The 11" size came up as I was searching for kits. I wouldn't mind either, but after talking to at least one potential place to get them, the 11" drums he sells still fit under the stock wheels, so I figured why not go with 11?

One of the reasons I'm not looking for just half measures like getting larger slave cylinders, is that these original brake sets are missing some of the more "modern" comforts, at least as far as drum brakes go. Things like self adjustors sure help me sleep better at night

Thanks George. I'll be sure and keep everyone updated. So far those that I've talked to don't seem to think there will be a problem with the 16" wheels and the 11" drums, so I'm just going to have to trust em on it until I get them in.