14 bolt brake conversion

[randyscycle]

But, with the stock drums, there is no provision for an emrgency brake in there.
With this swap, someone, like me, who had moved their rear driveshaft over to eliminate the tcase whine but did it before the ebake flange swap was discovered and has no current ebrake can choose to use a cable operated system in the drums instead.

It is an inexpensive alternative that, in the future, requires no mods to install off the shelf brake shoes.

I see, makes good sense in that instance!

[gonz]

Stock shoes are 2.5 inches wide...maybe the new ones are 2.25 or 2 inch?

I think they were 2 inch. I kind of remembered they were .5 less- gonz

[brute4c]

So you are still using the stock M715 shoes with the GM backing plates?

I have mistakenly believed the stock shoes were replaced with easier to find ones...

[saxon]

You use everything off of the donor backing plate. I do'nt know why I cant remember, but I think they are the same size width shoes as stock, I thought I measured when doing it?

[gonz]

No, I used all GM parts- gonz

[brute4c]

So one does get modern, easier to find, non asbestos shoes.

Thanks for clearing that up!!

[airborne]

So if on a stock truck ALL the packing plates are the same, can the 14 bolt plates work on the front? The E-brake hole can be delt with.

[brute4c]

The backing plates are unique to the front and rear though I dont know how much difference off hand...the parts manual lists:

PLATE, BACKING, REAR FE59400

PLATE, BACKING, FRONT FF59289

[gonz]

So if on a stock truck ALL the packing plates are the same, can the 14 bolt plates work on the front? The E-brake hole can be delt with.

I thought they looked close, but I bought #2 truck before getting to check that out. My ultimate goal was getting an ebrake in the truck- gonz

[MILRET45]

[QUOTE=gonz;85007]I did this to my parts truck rear axle before I bought #2 that actually ran.

"I got some 14 bolt backing plates at a pull and save. Took the plates and one of the d70 rear baking plates to a machinest and told him to make the holes to match out..."

I'm working through this same conversion now and have had my 14-bolt backing plates machined. My question is did you use the Chevy wheel cylinders or an M715 compatible wheel cylinder? I'm finding that the two tabs on the Chevy backing plate (inside to left and right of cylinder mounting hole) prohibit using an M715 style wheel cylinder as it won't fit between them. I can't see any use for these tabs unless they were designed to stablize the pushrods when inserted into the wheel cylinder. I'm considering cutting them off.