brake drum and backing plates between front/rear..the same??

[SpecialOrder66D100]

On the 5 lug 1/2 ton models: can you switch the drums/backing plates from front/rear??

[digdoug]

no

[SpecialOrder66D100]

so is there anyway to upgrade/improve what I have if retaining a drum brake system??

[chilort]

so is there anyway to upgrade/improve what I have if retaining a drum brake system??

What part of it, the front or the rear?

There is a company that makes a kit to convert the fronts to discs called Scarebird. I used their kit on my '68 D100 and love it.

The rear drums on these trucks are an odd size drum that is now difficult to find. You could convert it to the bigger drum setup from the B-body muscle cars (and when I have to find drums again for my truck that is exactly what I'm going to do since I put discs on the rear of my '70 Bee and kept all the drum stuff from that conversion) but it is only slightly bigger. The difference is that the drums themselves are not impossible to find.

There are also companies that make rear disc setups for the Chrylser 8 3/4 rear. Many require a conversion to something called the "green bearing." There are mixed opinions about this conversion. The green bearings used to be notorious for failures though they've improved considerably in the past few years. My personal opinion is that the green bearing is not designed to work properly for the 8 3/4 style rear. In my view, the 8 3/4 requires a tapered bearing (like it came with) and any good rear disc kit will retain the stock style tapered bearing. Baer used to make a kit (it is what is on my Bee) but I don't know if they still make it. I think there are other options out there.

Something to think about is that these trucks really aren't that heavy so a disc front and drum rear setup is generally quite good.

[SpecialOrder66D100]

I'm setting out for better stopping power on my front brakes...