So I am getting to rebuilding the 11 inch drum brakes on the 8 1/4 rear axle I got for my brother's Duster. Granted, I know the 11 inch brakes are total overkill, but I have them, so I want to try and use them.

The problem is I can't find anyone that stocks shoes or wheel cylinders or brake hardware for the 11 inch brakes. I can find 10 inch stuff fine, but no 11 inch parts.

Are these obsolete? Anybody still selling parts for Mopar 11 inch rear drum brakes? Do I need to swap down to 10 inch brakes? Should I try looking at parts for trucks or vans?

Thanks.

Nope. they used the 11" brakes on Diplomats til 89, vans til 97; B bodies (Magnum Cordoba Fury etc) had em til 79, so did some St Regis'es. til 81. Just try to look up a different app;
I don't remember 11 inchers ever being a factory option on an A body so, no, I would not be surprised when you are unable to see an 11" option available in the catalog for an A body.

I checked O'Reilly's (PartsAmerica) web site and looked up brakes for an '84 Dodge Diplomat..they have shoes, hardware kits, self adjuster kits, etc for 11" rear brake's. Even have new drums.

Buy small bore (¾") wheel cylinders for those giant rear drum brakes, or you'll lock up the rear wheels if you sneeze towards the pedal. The 11" drums use the same cylinders as the 10" drums, so it won't be hard to hunt 'em up. Use part numbers from this page.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Thanks guys. I actually was able to get almost everything I need by looking up 11 inch rear drums for a 74 Satellite. Surprisingly, the local Baxter Auto Parts had it all in stock. The only thing that didn't work was the shoes they sold me were too wide. I need to go back and get the 11 x 2.5 inch shoes. I will also double check the bore of the wheel cylinders I bought.


GRRRRRRR. They sold me the application correct 15/16 wheel cylinders. I already got one side done, so now I have to debate whether or not to take it back apart to swap out the wheel cylinder. Hmmmmmmm....

That's often (always, in my experience) too much wheel cylinder even on 10" brakes in the back of a disc-brake A-body. I like to solve rather than aggravate the premature rear lockup problem the disc-brake A-bodies tend to have, so my vote would be yes, you are on the wrong track with 15/16" cylinders and 11" drums in the back of an A-body.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

OK. I'll go ahead and pull the 15/16 wheel cylinder back off and get a 3/4. I suspect that a swap to 10 inch drums is somewhere in the future, but for now I am going to work with what I have.

I thought 11 inch drums were optional on v-8 a-bodies/towing packages/police packages? I can't imagine 360 Dusters packing nine inch drums in back.

The 11" drums were never offered on the A-body. 10" drums in back if the car had 10" drums or discs up front.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Now I'm really scratching my head. This is definitely an A-body 8 1/4 rear axle. Someone must have swapped the brakes on at some point in the past. However, this IS the second A-body 8 1/4 rear axle I have seen. The first was on a 74 Valiant sedan that had a 318. Of course, I last saw that Valiant about ten years ago, so maybe this is the SAME axle recycled back through the mopar enthusiast pipeline.

Yup. Very easy, since the 10" and 11" backing plates have the same bolt pattern.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I think a swap to bigger discs on an F-body means stock 14" wheels are to small - calipers will scrape. I don't know about the setup for an A-body, but you should check if you might need 15" wheels.
Olaf

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Aspenized

Thanks. I am making a swap to 15 inch slotted mag wheels.

Reed; I thought the car was a '74; that pic you show is definitely of an older model and of a Demon rather than a Duster (or are you mixing/matching various A body parts here in the build?)

Yep, the shell is a 74 Duster. The tail panel is a replacement Demon tail panel and the trunk lid is off a 70 Duster. The entire front clip is off of a 67 Dart GT. The bucket seats are out of a 96 Sebring. It will have 68 Dart side running lights (which I would like to wire to become functioning blinkers) and fender top turn signals off of a 68 car as well (can't remember which one- the bullet style, not the more common 70s style). I love mixing and matching mopar parts.

This is harder to do with the '68 marker lights than with the '70+ items, because the '68 lamps have only one wire. They get their ground via the housing mount to the fender. It's not impossible, you just have to feed the front sidemarker on each side of the car with a relay with its trigger contacts connected to the parking lamp feed and turn signal feed. See here for general info. (the '70-up markers are 2-wire devices, so you just wire them across park lamp feed and turn signal feed with no relay required.)

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.