Things you would rather do before drum brakes

Boinked

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Jul 7, 2018
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Mesa,az
I started doing a tire rotation and decided to pull the drums. (First mistake) then i noticed that the PO installed the adjuster wrong(second mistake) so i went down and brought new shoes and complete hardware kit (final mistake).

While cussing and complaining about doing the job i started making a list of things i would rather do the these damn drums.

In no particular order

1) go see the dentist
2) prostate exam
3) get deployed again
4) going to the opera

Feel free to add to the list.
 
  1. Own a JK or JL
  2. Not own a TJ
  3. Listen to the kids whine
  4. Going to kids birthday parties (Not our kids, I mean when we get invited and have to take our kids to another kids' birthday party)
  5. Watch "The View"
I'll think of more later.

This is why I always laugh when people say, "there is no advantage to upgrading the TJ rear axle to drum brakes". Oh yes there is... the benefit of never having to do drums again.

Hell, the last time I did drum brakes was probably 15 years ago, and I remember hating it with a passion. I never want to do them again as far as I'm concerned.
 
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There's a bunch of things I'd rather do than mess with drum brakes.

Luckily my TJ has disc brakes all the way around.

My CJ, on the other hand, has drum brakes all the way around and as often as I like to mention my love of leaf springs I really don't like the drums.
 
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Didn’t rubicons in 03+ get rear discs? (Or perhaps we’re defining things differently or I misunderstand)

I think he's referring to the parking brake drums, which are present even on Rubicon models with rear discs.

I mean "technically" they are drums, we just don't think of them as drums ;)
 
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yes they get crusty, a lot of times there just about seized onto the axle, many times they cant even be resurfaced or turned. ive had to replace everything up to the backing plates. and those I wire wheel and paint.
 
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yes they get crusty, a lot of times there just about seized onto the axle, many times they cant even be resurfaced or turned. ive had to replace everything up to the backing plates. and those I wire wheel and paint.

Gotta love salt.
 
I had to redo the entire drum assembly in my ‘69, if I ever have to do that again (regrettably unlikely) I’ll pay for someone else to bleed them. One occasion I recall ending up in another lane. Not a fun process to bleed and verify for those of us inexperienced in it.
 
Didn’t rubicons in 03+ get rear discs?
yes, but we still got useless drum brakes for the parking brake..... a can of tuna is bigger. And they wear out? quit working anyways.... every 3 months. I'd take a Sport Dana 44 with real parking brakes and drum brakes any day. Have not used the parking brake in 10 years, and I refuse to spend a penny to make it operational for another 3 months.

I replace the rear discs every 2 years, the front discs every 5 years. I never replaced my YJ rear drums. AND I have not seen any performance improvement with the rear discs.

Stupidest idea ever to put rear discs on a sport utility.
 
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