My Fairlane needs brakes. It needs new drums all the way around. The rears presently use 1 3/4 inch shoes. The fronts probably 2 - 21/4, or 2 1/2 inch shoes. I have been researching this and it looks like going to 2 or 2 1/2 inch drum and shoes on the back and 2 1/2 on the front is simple matter. Apparently the wagons used 2 1/2 rears. There are several drums available. Wagon, Sedan, Heavy Duty, Taxi and police. Is it just a simple matter of changing drums, shoes and hardware? 1 3/4 2"...2 1/2
I would think you would need the matching backing plates or the deeper drum wouldn't seat against the axle hub. The deeper drum would bottom out on the backing plate I would think, unless the backing plate was a small enough diameter to allow the drum to fit over it. Or I may just be full of crap this early in the morning......
Yeah, that's what I need to find out.....If I need to change backing plates to go to the larger drum. HRM had an article about '66 Shelby Mustang inspired drum conversions using Fairlane Wagon Brake drums. Of course it was 2 pages of Ho-Hum with no real technical info. It was 2 pages of Hey we put Fairlane Wagon Rear brakes on a Mustang just like Shelby did...you can too.
If you need the station wagon backing plates those are going to be very hard to find. Might be better in the long run to just find a complete mustang maverick rear end that has the larger brakes. Then again the stock configuration was designed to work with smaller rear brakes. You install larger drums and it could upset the balance and the rear tires lock up and skid the rear tires and the fronts still not applying much braking? and too boot the organic linings we get today are not near as good as the asbestos ones you car had originally.
I'm getting conflicting info on this from the Mustang folks. The HRM article is using 10" Brakes on a 8" Fairlane/ Mustang axle. The guys saying you must change backing plates are using 9" axles with 11" brakes.... So I'm going to order one "wagon" drum to see if will fit. I'll report the results.
The backing plates go with the drums. Another source is early 80's small Lincoln, they had 10 x 2 1/2" brakes on the rear. Sent from my SM-G900V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The axle offset is 2 1/2", small bearing 9" is the same as 8". Big bearing and Torino bearing 9" is another animal. Sent from my SM-G900V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Update... I am a member of the Fairlane Club of America. I want to advise anyone who has one of these cars to join. You get a nice bi monthly magazine plus you have access to archives and an online discussion forum. There's is plenty of info or non Fairlaners as well. I will not divulge intellectual property other than to state the obvious that this modification is not needed and can be of some determent. Old Wolf alluded to this above with his statement about rear lock up. I fell victim to the "bigger must be better" mentality and that is just not the case. If you stay with drums stay with what was original on the car. For all sedans and hardtops thats 1 3/4 rear shoes, 2 1/4 fronts. Do not be confused by heavy duty....police and taxi. Of course wagons were larger but wagons had substantially more tail weight especially loaded. Again there's no real advantage in going with the larger drums and shoes on a sedan or coupe.
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