Has anyone converted 63 rear drum to 65 rear drum hardware

[1963c-10]

Has anyone converted their 63 to accept the 65 self adjusting rear brake drum hardware? If the rearends are the same, is it just a matter of obtaining the 65 hardware and doing the swap or is there more involved?

[Trap62]

The shoes have to be replaced as well. There's a good write up in the FAQ section dealing with this.

[1963c-10]

I must have passed by it, Ill check it out. Id like to convert the rear of my 63 to them.

[Trap62]

I'm converting the ones on my 62 this month to self-adjusting along with the 1966 emergency brake setup that Woogero (?) posted a "How To" help FAQ on. Ordered and received all of the parts that I need except for the brackets that go on the trailing arms and they should be here this week.

[1963c-10]

I pulled the thread into the current topics. I think I have it figured out parts wise, just unsure of the compatability of my 63 rear e-brake cables? Do I need new ones? And just the rear cables up to the equalizer, or does the whole cable need replaced? The drum parts seem pretty straight forward. And whats the deal with the bracket you refer too? I didnt see mention of that.

[Trap62]

Not sure about you emergency brake cable. As I'm updating mine to the 66 setup, it never crossed my mind if my old ones would work. I would assume that the 64 and 65 rear cables are similar to the ones on your 63 and those two years are natural fits for self adjusting hardware thus yours should be okay as well but I would confirm that with one of the old salts here.

[1963c-10]

The video made by Chevy in 63 didn't say anything about replaceing the cables, just want to make sure I have all parts before I pull it apart. Should be a fairly quick job as I just did rear brakes a year ago.

[Sharps40]

PMd ya. Got most of what ya need for the rear. Only thing missing is the parking brake struts and the levers from the cable to the top of the rear shoe, promised to another.

[markeb01]

In case a GMC owner reads this thread sometime in the future, here’s a bit of information I learned adding self adjusters to my 1960. For the most part I just bought the later self adjuster kits and bolted everything together. I did discover I needed the later shoes as they had a required extra hole not present on my 1960 shoes.

The difficult part of the project was trying to replace the original rusted emergency brake cables. Being a GMC with a Dana 44 rear end, the emergency brake cables did not have conventional spring fingers to attach the cables to the backing plates. They had special brackets attached to the cables that bolted to a rather large odd shaped hole in the backing plates. I searched hundreds of cars in wrecking yards (mostly Fords, Jeeps, and Mopars) looking for Dana 44 backing plates of a similar shape but having a normal round hole to insert the e-brake cable. I never found any that would fit on the 1960 GMC/Dana rear end housing. Ultimately I had my son fabricate custom brackets that were bolted to the GMC backing plates that allowed normal Chevy cables to be installed.

[neto]

Pictures would really be nice in this thread.
Thanks

[1963c-10]

Ill get pics, but it will be this weekend before I get into the rear brakes.

[Sharps40]

I have all the 64 cables and brackets if ya need em. Home evenings and all weekend doin dizzy and 2 bbl swap.
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[1963c-10]

Got your PM rich....im trying to work up my parts list. I should be able to retain my e-brake cables per the archive GM video on the conversion. Should just be the self adjuster kits and new rear shoes to get me set up. Ill let you know

[Sharps40]

Too easy. If ya want any of it, just holler.

[1963c-10]

As always....thank you sir.