F&R drum brakes, stopping power?

What special tools are available? I probability have been doing it the hard way.

 

my press is only 8"....it was free


maybe i'll have to invest in a bigger one.


so the question in my mind: i see you drillled the holes in sets of 3.....so that means you drilled 18.6667 sets of 3 holes per wheel.....or basically you have 2 holes that dont belong to a set of 3......how did you arrange them?
(honest question... not just trying to give you a hard time )


and lastly.... how critical is hole location relative to each other.....perticularly considering balance and uneven stresses.......
what method did you personally use to mark the holes evenly around the diameter?....this seems like the hardest part to me



this is uber-informative....thanks

 

Hmm, I have one of those, always wondered what it was. (Came with a bunch of tools that were my Uncles' originally, years ago.)

 

Just wanted to throw out that last weekend, I had my non-power drum braked 5 on a trail where we drove downhill over 2 miles at 10 to 25% grade with numerous large rocks and small ledges. Since the stock gearing is so high, it was a complete coast riding the brakes the whole way at 1.5 to 2.5mph. My legs still hurt from standing on the brake pedal. I could still stop the rig at will, but the effort required was enormous. I'll be putting power disks on as soon as this wheeling season is over.

I don't recommend 4 wheel standard drums for mountain trail driving. R)

 

Regarding tools, look for Lisle or K-D brands. They have a lot of brake tools.

Here's the drum brake caliper - you could maybe make one http://www.brandsplace.com/0246-kd-3377.html

The pliers are handy, but I usually use thin-nose vise grips to pull the springs over the posts. Look at the handle ends on the pliers - the big end is used to remove the springs, and the small end is used to replace them. You don't need the plier ends for Bendix brakes in my experience. I have this tool http://www.brandsplace.com/0246-kd280.html that duplicates the ends of the pliers without the jaw part. I will buy a MityVac the next time I work on brakes, but speed bleeders do about the same thinh.

 

It would be an interesting experiment

 

Hummm. Interesting post NoCoJeeper. One of my favorite trails here outside Yosemite sounds similar. I too run a stock 75, T14, D20, 3.73's,30" od school skinny bias plys, non power 11" drum brakes. I run the same trail in my Pathfider with power brakes, front disc. I far prefer the Jeep's braking, much more controlable, less of an off/on that I get from the assisted brakes. MUCH better on very steep sections than the assisted. We've probably got very similar (lousy) crawl ratios on our Jeeps.
I wonder if our different take on what appears to be similar trails is due to different driving style? The Pathfider is such a different animal (auto/ps/pb/31" radials) that driving each on the same trail takes two different techniques. In the Jeep, I tend to look ahead more and use the superior manuverability to find the smoothest line without using a lot of brake. It might be that the longer wheelbase of the Pathfinder simply requires more use of the grabby power brakes due to its having less manuverability.

Anyway, I'm one vote for the drilled drums. #1 on my winter project list. I've done it to other (street only) vehicles, and it seems to have worked quite well.