Drum brakes or discs?

I was going to rebuild my '77 CJ5 using a pair of axles I took off a '74 CJ6 as the rear is a Dana44 and the pair are 4.27:1 ratio.
But the front (Dana30) is drum brakes which I was going to stick with as I'm gonna build a real BASIC jeep.
After reading some of your posts I'm not so sure now, those brakes seem to have loads of issues.
Are they really that bad?

 

My drums will stop me Jeep with 33's in a heart beat. Do a search on here and the WWW. Lot's of people have converted to disks if you think it's necesarry, but I would try the drums out and see what you think before spending more money on a disk braked 30.

High5

 

I think they are fine, but I've rebuilt a lot of drum brakes. However, if you have the original '77 Dana 30 front axle with disk brakes, you may as well use them. The complete knuckles, from the ball joints out, will swap over to the '74 4.27 axle.

The 11" drum brakes are no different from any other drum brakes, but people seem to have a lot of trouble with them because they are a little more complex to work on than disks. However, disk brakes are clearly superior to drums in almost every way - simpler, more reliable, self-wiping, less fade - so if you have a choice, go with the disks.

 

i agree with Tim, if you have discs go with them but if not then drums are ok. I ran drums on mine with 35's for awhile and they did fine then i went to discs and its really nive but both worked well for me. Its what your budget will allow.

 

I agree about the discs being a step forward, on merit, I should run discs.
But my concept for my CJ5 is "primative jeep" even though it's an AMC (long nose,'77)CJ5.
I'm building up three CJ7s (eventually) they are getting "bastardized" with XJ and YJ parts to make them more suitable for modern conditions.
My CJ5 will be an absolute basic jeep (with the exception of PAS, I hate manual steering) and it will remain firmly rooted in the 1970s with no modern upgrades.
If the drum's aren't particular trouble areas, I'll run with them

 

You can drill the drums to improve fade. Several articles here.

 

the drums are very serviceable for moderate use. plenty good for street, decent for off-road. only real issues long-term are related to off-road - they get mud/water/dirt inside the drum, and that causes problems. parts wear out quickly with that stuff, and water increase the stopping distances. those aren't issues for street use, really. i had them for over 15 years and had fine brake performance on road. i switched to discs up front because i use the jeep a lot in off-road conditions, and i got tired of having to clean the drum assembly of mud/dirt, or readjust after any water crossings.

btw, the drums are easy to work on, don't let that be a deterrent.

 

Go with the discs, my drums are a constant battle

 

My 77 dana 30 had disks on it from the factory. Its under my 71 jeep now to replace the 10" drums.

 

I'd change to disks based purely on a safety argument. The last time my drums got wet, they disappeared for about 10 miles of mountain driving. It was the scariest ride I've had in many, many years. The disks don't necessarily work that much better, but they recover a lot faster and require a lot less maintenance.

One caveat, my brakes are non-power, power drum brakes may work a lot better.

 

from what i've read, on this site and others, non-finned drums are used, rather than the finned drums. i think the 77 will have finned. not saying that finned drums can't be drilled, just that every link/thread i've read has involved the earlier non-finned drums. and, from the amount of work that appears to be involved with drilling, it seems like changing over to discs takes less time. i know that with my minimal mechanical skills, i was able to change the knuckles over to disc-knuckles in about 6 hours of work.