14 bolt brake conversion

[wrecker]

Has anyone attempted to swap the backing plate and the entire brake assembly except the drums from a 14 bolt to our axles? The other thread where the 14bolt brake shoes will work with our drums with some mods, tells me the shoes are the correct size for our drums, so why not swap the backing plate too and have a readily available parts source for everything inside the drums? I have a couple 14 bolts and think I might try setting this up unless someone has allready tried and knows that it will fail miserably. More to come on this, but not right away. Still in the middle of some other mods.

[saxon]

The 13" backing plate works great, you have to hog out the center hole a little and splay out the 4 mounting holes a bit. It took a machinist about 30 min. You also get the advantage of cable emer. brakes. I needed this because of my 205 conversion with the gearvendors on the back of it did'nt allow me to use the stock band brake. I swapped the cables to pull from the pass. side. so now I'll adapt the stock brake handle to actuate the late model self adjusting brakes from that side.

[wrecker]

I wish I'd thought of it before doing all the work to convert the band brake to my 205. I'm in it for about 140 bucks and that's getting the machine work done for a pizza. Plus I still need to address the brakes. Anyhoo, thanks for the confirmation.

[brute4c]

Saxon, was that you who did the backing plate swap years back and had pics before the crash?

I seem to remember the opening up of the center hole and slight ovaling of the mouint holes ...you used the stock drums but I forget if they were stock brake shoes or the Chevy ones...what works there?

Thanks!!

[saxon]

Jon, no that was'nt me, I tuned into the zone just after the crash. Everything you verified is right and everything on that 13" GM 14 bolt backing plate is used as if it's on the original GM vehicle. I hav'nt yet got the lines to the wheel cyls. yet but it dos'nt seem as if it's any tighter than the stock attachment.

[brute4c]

So you did use the GM shoes and springs then with the stock M715 drums?

Thanks for the info...this is something we lost and actualy I had forgotten...MarknessMonster had asked me about hooking up the stock drums/backing plates to work with a parking brake and I couldnt remember this info to give him...he and I both need to do something after swapping the rear shaft and I prefer this method for the brake part availability...thanks again!!