Gerald Morris
Senior Member
Greetings C Body Moparians,
I had installed some crap modern brake shoes along with RayWorstos drums about 2 1/2 yrs ago, rationalizing then that "this was all there was" and I was in a hurry. I didn't like the crap material in the brake shoes I got from VatoZone, but deluded myself with notions of their warranty, which doubtless could be invoked for the **** shoes themselves, but what of the drum that got scored last Sunday when the secondary shoe, front driver side just CRUMBLED?!
The scoring from the metal shoe backing shows clearly on this drum, which I drove on 1 week ago to church, then home, where I promptly jacked the car up, pulled the drum, used MOST UNSPIRITUAL LANGUAGE, then began a frantic search for a replacement set of shoes and a quick source for a new drum. But alas! 56 yr old Chryslers no longer warrant having replacement parts in stock at the convenience auto-part stores on Sundays.....
Such BLESSINGS I accrue without knowing them at first!
I Ubered to my storage locker, got a set of rear shoes, and slapped a 2.5 inch secondary into that front assembly, figuring that the new cheap shoe would smooth the scoring down some for the few days I would be forced to use it. I've resorted to such expedients before on other all-drum rides. It worked some, though I still will have the drum turned, and store it as a spare.
The NEW drums impress me considerably more than the old stuff. I found a new brand called "Dynamic Friction Company" at Rock Auto, and checked them out. Turns out they're a NEW U.S. outfit! They balance their drums, and paint them with some decent high temperature coating, so the outside of the drum is protected from weather. Best of all: I could get a PAIR of these for slightly LESS than a SINGLE Raybestos drum under the O'Reilly brand! THAT DECIDED US HERE! I ordered some new dust caps from Rick Ehrenberg the same Monday I ordered the DFC drums, which arrived Saturday afternoon.
The NOS shoes installed easily enough, along with some new hardware I extracted from my horde to help insure a good, long-lived service for these venerable asbestos shoes. I measured the spacing of the adjuster at 0.3725" with my trusty West German Craftsman vernier calipers, and this is exactly what I'll set the passenger side to next Saturday.
After settling on that measurement, I replaced the dust cap, and took a pic of the new drum.
The test drive went MOST satisfactorily. I'll post you all if anything extraordinary happens. I think this Dynamic Friction outfit might help folks out with brake drums AND disks. Check them out here:
Dynamicfriction.com - America's Preferred Automotive Brakes Manufactuer - Home
I had installed some crap modern brake shoes along with RayWorstos drums about 2 1/2 yrs ago, rationalizing then that "this was all there was" and I was in a hurry. I didn't like the crap material in the brake shoes I got from VatoZone, but deluded myself with notions of their warranty, which doubtless could be invoked for the **** shoes themselves, but what of the drum that got scored last Sunday when the secondary shoe, front driver side just CRUMBLED?!
The scoring from the metal shoe backing shows clearly on this drum, which I drove on 1 week ago to church, then home, where I promptly jacked the car up, pulled the drum, used MOST UNSPIRITUAL LANGUAGE, then began a frantic search for a replacement set of shoes and a quick source for a new drum. But alas! 56 yr old Chryslers no longer warrant having replacement parts in stock at the convenience auto-part stores on Sundays.....
Such BLESSINGS I accrue without knowing them at first!
I Ubered to my storage locker, got a set of rear shoes, and slapped a 2.5 inch secondary into that front assembly, figuring that the new cheap shoe would smooth the scoring down some for the few days I would be forced to use it. I've resorted to such expedients before on other all-drum rides. It worked some, though I still will have the drum turned, and store it as a spare.
The NEW drums impress me considerably more than the old stuff. I found a new brand called "Dynamic Friction Company" at Rock Auto, and checked them out. Turns out they're a NEW U.S. outfit! They balance their drums, and paint them with some decent high temperature coating, so the outside of the drum is protected from weather. Best of all: I could get a PAIR of these for slightly LESS than a SINGLE Raybestos drum under the O'Reilly brand! THAT DECIDED US HERE! I ordered some new dust caps from Rick Ehrenberg the same Monday I ordered the DFC drums, which arrived Saturday afternoon.
The NOS shoes installed easily enough, along with some new hardware I extracted from my horde to help insure a good, long-lived service for these venerable asbestos shoes. I measured the spacing of the adjuster at 0.3725" with my trusty West German Craftsman vernier calipers, and this is exactly what I'll set the passenger side to next Saturday.
After settling on that measurement, I replaced the dust cap, and took a pic of the new drum.
The test drive went MOST satisfactorily. I'll post you all if anything extraordinary happens. I think this Dynamic Friction outfit might help folks out with brake drums AND disks. Check them out here:
Dynamicfriction.com - America's Preferred Automotive Brakes Manufactuer - Home