Rear drum to disc conversion?
- Thread starter lovemachine
- Start date
If your rear drums are functioning as designed, converting them to disk won't improve your braking. It'll make them easier to work on but don't look for improvement in braking.
To improve braking, improve the front brakes which provide appropriate 75% of the braking.
OP
Makes sense. I need to change the rear brakes, and just figured if there was an advantage to do a swap, now would be the time.
I noticed no offroad braking difference after converting my previous TJ from rear drum to disk. I was sorely disappointed in that lack of discernable difference in before and after braking. I did the conversion before I knew better.
Unless you do any hill climing or spend time with the front tire off the ground its not worth the expense.
The big difference i saw was on a yj rock crawling. Spent a lot of time with more weight on the rear axle. So it did do "better" at holding the weight (my opinion and we know what they say about them). Of course if you are adjusted correctly on the drums it should be the same. But i have never been able to keep them adjusted.
The only other advantage of the rear disk is the E-break holds better and doesn't need to be adjusted as often.
Rear discs are easier to work on, that's it. However, that's enough for me to sell me on it.
I agree disc brakes are a little easier to change but how often do you do it. Most vehicles I’ve worked on have run over 100,000 miles on shoes
