rear drum brakes

I have a 72 Nova and I want to upgrade my rear brakes. I thought about the S-10 rear disc conversion and someone said I could upgrade to 11 inch rear drum brakes and be just as well off. Supposedly just get to the junkyard and find a large chevy like an impala or a stationwagon and take the rear brakes off and swap them on mine. Has anyone ever done this and how well did it work? I know that they sell an 11 inch rear brake kit but it cost around 400 dollars and that's a little pricey. Any ideas?

I have a 72 Nova and I want to upgrade my rear brakes. I thought about the S-10 rear disc conversion and someone said I could upgrade to 11 inch rear drum brakes and be just as well off. Supposedly just get to the junkyard and find a large chevy like an impala or a stationwagon and take the rear brakes off and swap them on mine. Has anyone ever done this and how well did it work? I know that they sell an 11 inch rear brake kit but it cost around 400 dollars and that's a little pricey. Any ideas?

you need everything from the housing flange out..... backing plate to drums.... its a bolt on.

check your bolt pattern impalas are 5x5 novas are 5x4.75

i believe 73 77 cutlass has 11 in drums and 4.75 bolt pattern, that should bolt on

FOUND this over @ a OLDS site...

Source
http://www.oldsmobility.com/discbrakes.htm


Have you considered simply upgrading your rear drums to a larger size? Then you could keep all your existing setup and just swap out the rear axle stuff and be done. You then get better rear braking, and better heat dissipation without the major hassles of the rear disks. This can easily be done by simply using the backing plates from a '76 or '77 Monte Carlo or some B-bodies, and everything else bought new. I paid $5 ea for the backing plates and they came with decent wheel cylinders. Springs kit and cylinder rebuild kit was about $12 a side. Pads were approx $25 and the drums about $35 ea. So for about $130

This guy has the brackets needed to install general GM rear Disc brakes to a 10 or 12 bolt rear.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/REAR-DISC-BRAKES-Impala-Chevrolet-Chevy-10-12-bolt_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ42605QQihZ013QQite mZ230219097696QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

This guy has the brackets needed to install general GM rear Disc brakes to a 10 or 12 bolt rear.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/REAR-DISC-BRAKES-Impala-Chevrolet-Chevy-10-12-bolt_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ42605QQihZ013QQite mZ230219097696QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

Hi Al, I got his brackets... they are ?OK? wrong offset for the calipers to bleed... need to be rotated down.. about 15* down to properly bleed right.... and be prepared to wait... it took a month to get my brackets.... and NO EMAIL communications... I emailed 13 times... not one response. finely contacted ebay... they were no help... the guy is mean, and very grumpy.....

check his neg feed back.... DOUG100

HERE

http://www.toolhaus.org/

Hi Al, I got his brackets... they are ?OK? wrong offset for the calipers to bleed... need to be rotated down.. about 15* down to properly bleed right.... and be prepared to wait... it took a month to get my brackets.... and NO EMAIL communications... I emailed 13 times... not one response. finely contacted ebay... they were no help... the guy is mean, and very grumpy.....

check his neg feed back.... DOUG100

HERE

http://www.toolhaus.org/

Good to know, I have the MPB complete 4 wheel disc system on my car.

I just saw them one day. Never checked him out.

Al

disc brake bkts from 78 79 cad seville will work, large rotors, staggered calipers need redrill tho as they are 5x5 firebird and camaro mid to early 80s if you want small disc

That surprises me about Doug. I have his brackets on my Nova and had good service from him. Everything worked great. I emailed him some general questions about my brake setup recently and he responded quickly and was very nice.
Tg