disc or drum brakes?

[RockRanger]

I am swaping in a 44 and 9" here soon a the 44 front i have is drum and trying to decide if it is really worth making it disk vs just keeping it drum. To do disks I need knuckles and out off a disk brake front end. I am thinking that using 4 drums from a 5000lb truck to stop a 3500lb truck should beable to stop it fine. Any reason that this is a terrable idea and should not be considered. I avoid mud so I dont think muddy brakes not stopping will be much of a problem.

Matt

 

[Alec]

IMO disc brakes are almost always preferable to drums. If they're overkill, fine. You never know when you need to panic stop!

 

[RockRanger]

I am sure disks are better however My dana 35 is bent and steering is jacked up. So instead of spending money to fix it to throw away in a few months i am thinking put the 44 in with drums then see how it works and if i hate it Ill save up and swap discs on.

Matt

 

[james t]

as someone who has recently done a disc swap on a D44 (my bronc weighs 3800), im telling you now you will hate it and it will be unsafe. period. even with good shoes/drums/etc, the drums do not have ANY power. oh, and you cant just slap a drum front end on your truck and it work. the drum master cylinders have a check valve in them to keep the brakes from locking up from normal driving. your disc master cylinder doesnt have one of these.

if you plan to offroad at all, i pray that it is on flat ground.

 

[Texan01]

Those drums will fade in a hurry compared to disc brakes, it'd work till you get a disc setup but drive carefully and leave extra space in front.

Had a friend with a 74 Dodge Dart that had 4 wheel drums, that car was scary in traffic, it had manual brakes already but when the drums faded after 2 or 3 stops it was time to get worried.

 

[Yomie]

i had a '71 Nova, 350 with a munsey 3-speed. i know this is not an explorer but the 4 wheel drums were Horrible even at slow speeds. After a few minutes in stop and go traffic you could lay on the brakes and it would hardly stop. I wouln't reccomend it

 

[james t]

Texan and Yomie- my point exactly. if you've been driving for a while, and come to a stop, the brakes are kinda scary. if you need to stop more than once, the brakes are not even there. drums cannot handle the stress of braking duty for the front end.

 

[V8BoatBuilder]

Disc and drum brakes uses different pressures. If you swapped from front discs to the front drums, you would need to find a drum/drum master cylinder. Not hard, but another thing going agaisnt the swap.

 

[Isles4evr]

Your gona need a drum/drum master as said before, a residual check valve for the front brakes and get rid of the porporting valve that you have. I am not sure if the explorer has a combination valve, but if it does then that has to go (includes metering valve, proportioning valve and pressure differental valve/switch). In all honesty swap it to discs and save yourself a lot of headaches!

Chris

 

[james t]

Isles4evr- "residual check valve". thanks, thats what i was trying to think of. it was right on the tip of my tongue in my first post.