Janice Duppel

Hi my name is Janice, I was wondering if i can put my front brake drums on the back?

oldcutlass

Welcome to the site, I believe they are different, Janice. Why are you trying to swap them around? Post some pictures when you get a chance.

jaunty75

I went to the Autozone website just now and found that the front and rear drums for a '74 Omega are the same part number. So, yes, apparently you can swap them around.


front:

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par.../N-iox2uZ8knr7


rear:

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par.../N-iox2uZ8knp2




But I have the same question as oldcutlass. Why do you want to do this? If you put the front drums on the back, what will you do for front drums? With new drums readily available and not that much money, why not just get new ones if you need them?

oldcutlass

Rockauto calls for 2 different part numbers for AC Delco, PRonto, Bendix, Centric, and Raybestos.

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,ca...%2B350cid%2BV8

jaunty75

You're right. I'll bet the autozone site is in error.

It still begs the question, though. With new drums readily available, some for less than $25 at rockauto, why does she want to do this at all?

oldcutlass

I guess we'll find out, stay tuned.

joe_padavano

Gotta love that AutoZone website. It gives dimensions for those drums in mm but weight in pounds...

In any case, I'm not convinced the AutoZone site is wrong. I was all set to call BS due to the difference in front/back shoe width until I checked the drum dimensions at Centric. Here's the front drum on the left, rear on the right:



Note that the drum height is within spitting distance on the two. It would be a waste of friction area, but it sure looks like the front drums could be used on the rear. Obviously, in the interest of saving on inventory cost, AutoZone has consolidated part numbers. I guess the easy thing to do is to pull a front drum and a back drum off the Omega and set them side-by-side.

And while not directly applicable, back in the day I did use a front drum from a 1974 Nova on the back of my 1968 Vista Cruiser. Of course, the Vista uses the same 9.5 x 2.5 shoes on the back as the Nova used on the front.

Railguy

My parts book says,
wheel drum 2 001.jpg
Kinda seems like it would be the other way around.
railguy

oldcutlass

I didn't say autozone was wrong... Just that other manufacturers called out different pn's, red flag warning.

joe_padavano

Don't confuse factory parts applications with aftermarket ones. Aftermarket suppliers often consolidate part numbers where possible to save on inventory costs, especially for older, less popular models.

Railguy

Any idea why the front drums would be slightly different?Back when it was built they didn't do things that way.If the fronts were different it was for a reason.You would think the fins would be for cooling and I think 60% of the breaking is done by the front.
railguy

nsnarsk65cutlass

No the widths are different.

joe_padavano

The widths of the shoes are different (2.5" front, 2" back), but apparently the widths of the drums are the same, or close enough to allow one part number to be used on both ends from an aftermarket supplier perspective.