Hi all,
I hope every one is having a great Summer ! So I am doing some brake work on my 72 Cutlass Supreme and was getting ready to order my rear drum brake shoes. Only to find that there are two different sizes. So I am reaching out to me knowledgeable Olds peeps out there. They are the original stock drums that the car came with. I only converted the fronts over to disc. There are two brake shoes listed for the rear drums. I don't want to disassembly the rears at this time since I really only have to replace the rear brake cylinders, but since they hadn't been done for over a decade since she is not a daily driver. So there are two sizes listed 9.5" x 2.06" and 9'5" x 2.56". Can someone help me verify which would be the correct size I would need to order.

Thanks so much for your help in advance.

 

Measure the width of the lining on your old shoes.

 

Yup 2 inch or 2 1/2 inch

 

Hi 72455,
I was hoping to not disassemble the rear brakes till I had the new shoes. but if it requires this in order to confirm the width of the shoes then that is what I will do. The car was assembled on Oct 71, But it is a 72 model year.

 

2.5" shoes are for the vista cruiser rears, which are actually front shoes in the rear position.

You need the 2"shoes for your cutlass.

 

Thanks Don,
My friend and i were discussing this yesterday, and that came up in discussion. I have my front drums from when I did the swap to disc. The front drums measure 2.56" but since they are the primary brake they would be. I assumed the rears would also be 2.56" if a Vista Cruiser or 442-SX since that would be needed for the extra weight of a Vista Cruiser, or performance and possible power from the 455 engines. since mine was originally a single exhaust 350 with auto 3 speed. The larger drums were not required.
But on another note, The 350 had been reworked for extra HP. Bored 0.60 over. stepped up Cam but stock crank and 0.60 1970 pistons. and dual exhaust mated to Thornton Cast exhaust manifolds, not headers. so should I also look into putting one new rear drums, that would use the 2.56: shoes? Or leave the stock 2.06 rear drums as is.

 

Leave them as they are; you don't need the larger brakes. All of the rearends I have put under my car since the 1980s (2.56, 3.08. 3.23, 3.55) had the regular 2" shoes and I never had any issues stopping.

 

x2 Especially since (1) you converted to front discs & (2) ~80% braking occurs on the front wheels/discs.

 

The 2.5" wide shoes won't fit in your rear drums. Vistas used different backing plates and wider drums and different rear wheel cylinders.