Drum Brake Venting

[sider68]

Is there anyone out there that does this or can you do it yourself? I hear it really improves drum brakes.

[N2TRUX]

There was a thread on it a while back. I think everyone pretty much agreed that it wasn't worth while on a street truck, and could promote drum failure.

[smashingchuck]

What do you do? Drill holes in the drum?

[sider68]

Yes. I was reading an article,that said by doing this,it would greatly improve stopping power. Im going to switch from standard to power on all four drum brakes

[N2TRUX]

Where did you read this? If it were me, I would convert to discs and not worry about it.

[cdowns]

we used to drill the backing plates and add small scoops to them to improve airflow// drilled drums werent allowed in the race classes i was in

best way to improve drum brakes is with very expensive shoes

[ShredSled]

I've seen it done just recently on some custom motorcycles, with finned hubs even... on some retro cafe-racers.
Pretty cool IMO, and old-school trick mod, and they even had some nice mesh covers over the individual holes...

Not sure I'd do it just for long term maintenance though, but maybe for show...

[mclairmo]

I've experienced drum brake fade on my 67 camaro with 396 and manual drums all around. Really scary. Swapped to manual discs up front and no more problems. I think heat is the enemy here and anything you can do to reduce heat and allow gasses to escape the surface of the shoe will help. Or, just swap to discs and be assured of a better/safer braking system. There is a good reason why GM switched to front discs as standard equipment.

[ShredSled]

yep, heat is the enemy... but, regardless of disc or drum, I've experienced fade on both just the same!

[sider68]

Here I found a link to the subject http://www.chtopping.com/classictruck.html

[LONGHAIR]

Originally Posted by mclairmo

Or, just swap to discs and be assured of a better/safer braking system. There is a good reason why GM switched to front discs as standard equipment.

I'd bet that isn't not what you think....
Disc brakes do not stop inherently better. "Power" was added to help them with their inadequacy there.
The real advantages are in fade resistance and lower maintenance. Disc brakes are more forgiving. They don't need to be adjusted and have less tendancy to "pull".
The "self energizing" properties of drum brakes actually work very well, check under a dump truck or 18 wheeler....

[Hottrucks]

ok I was the one with the post about driling drums...there wasn't a good feeling about it..I have since added power to my drums and all I can say is they still suck....I just scored a set of drop spindles that where 5 lug and switched the disc to 1992 2500 ( under 7300 gvw) discs that have the 6 lug pattern...I need to save up some cash then I'm going to rebuild the complete front and and have power disc brakes ..cost will be about $300 and its all available though Napa or any local parts store..

IMAO do the disc swap first the you can find a peddle assembly from a board member for cheap ( make sure the booster is good..I'm still waiting for someone to make good on the one I bought..then you can add the booster..it takes about an hour and you don't even need to crack a brake line to add it

Jeff