11" Brake Conversion woes

Ok, so I feel like I've been here before ... I have been working on my brakes for like the last 6 months! I've just been piecing them together. They are the stock 9" ones for my 1971 cj5. I replaced all the wheel cylenders (front and back), replaced the front shoes and machined the drums ... but today I went out for the first time to drive around the block ... I had adjusted the brakes too tight and burnt my brakes ... As I pulled back into my driveway they basically seized up! That was the last straw for me ...money just down the drain! They didn't work great anyways ... I've heard great things about the 11" conversion ... I'm thinking of just buying from Herm (front and rears ... I think it's only $600)... I haven't heard about any other places selling them.

My concern:
1. My hubs are swagged unto the drums, if I don't care about the drums anymore, can I just take a grinder/cutter to the studs and knock them out? I know I have to get really up close to the drum, where the "swag" is ... And then I can just buy new studs and put them on my old hub with my new drums from Herm. Does that make sense? I'm just trying to avoid going to a machine shop ...

2. Any reviews on the 11" setup ... they seem to work great for people... It seems like it's just a simple buy and plug in setup. I have a dual master cylinder and can use that ...

 

1. If you have a hydraulic press, you can press the hubs out and reuse them on the 11" drums.

2. they work great for me! sure, use the dual MC. It is a good safety upgrade.

 

thanks guys for the advice ... I'm pretty sure they're 9 inch brakes ... I actually hope they are because the braking really worked for sh%t ... The biggest concern I have is keeping the hubs ... they are expensive. So what some of you are saying is, I can grind/cut the studs away from the drum and the hub should fall away?? Without damaging the hub?

 

For what it's worth my 62 had the screws, before I put on the 11's on. I had to drill out the screws because the po had the heads all messed up.

 

another quick question ... do you recommend getting all four 11" drum upgrade ($600) with Herm ... or can I "get away" with just doing the front ... it's much less expensive ... but if it's worth it, and I'm planning on keeping this jeep for the rest of my life ... then I'll do it

 

also, is it worth going to a junkyard and picking through what I might find to see if I can piece it together? I guess I would be looking for the backing plate, and then I could buy everything new ... It just seems to much easier going with Herm, just more expensive ... I've looked through a lot of forums and I go back and forth

 

I did mine when I had the chance. I put the front on with all new lines then a few months later when the mood struck me I did the back. I got all my stuff from an old postal jeep. cool part about the 11" breaks is all the soft lines wheel cylinders springs and stuff from auto zone. they had most of the stuff in stock. If it were me I would go to the junk yard and look around. I think I only have around 200 bucks in mine.

 

Here is a backing plate I found on ebay ... can I use these for my fronts? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mopa...Accessories?hash=item3a5878adff#ht_500wt_1182

 

This is the only pic i have of mine this was when i was taking them off the Postal.

 

Kinda depends on you, I reckon. If you can afford the whole shebang from Herm or R&P, then that's certainly the quickest, cleanest and easiest route. If you're not pressed for time, and don't mind scrounging, junkyard will work, but you're likely to throw away everything but the backing plates and have to buy all new stuff anyway.

Sounds like your Jeep is running and rolling already, just needs to stop too? Get the kit from Herm if you can afford it. I'd do all four at once if it was me, liable to run into issues if you don't.

 

At present, on my '71 I'm running 11" fronts and 10" rears. Soon I'll do a Saganaw conversion and D30/11" fronts. My present front 11"ers will go to the rear.

 

With just the 11" fronts does it stop ok? I'm going to do just the fronts for now because of money
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mine stopped pretty good with the 11's just on the front. I would lock them up from time to time, never could do that with the 9"

 

I used backing plates from a 1971 bronco on mine. I recall them being about $30 per plate (bought all four at once to save shipping).

 

did you find them on ebay? What did you type in to search? So, if I can recall, I can use 1970's Bronco, Ford pickup's, and later model cj's ... It looks like it might be worth looking around to see if I can find parts for all 4 ...