Patrick

The tool you need to measure the inside diameter of the drums is the Ammco 8500. I think you can safely go a few thousandths over 10" and 11" but it's tough finding replacements. Keep an eye out for drums as new as 1964. That was the last year they used a tapered axle and the drums will fit your truck. I just rebuilt my rear axle and I replaced the backing plates with a set from a 1964 truck and am using the 11x2" drums from it as well. The brakes are not self adjusting but they only have one adjuster and will make my life much simpler. If you keep the stock brakes you're going to need the Ammco 1750 brake adjustment tool. It's expensive and even though the idea is simple it's a pain in the butt. Some members of this website have them and will loan or rent one to you. Your brakes are the most difficult part of the truck to get correct. I have learned this from experience. So my truck is a stock restoration with the exception of the brakes.

That's the long term plan Jeff but as you know finding a 3/4 ton drum is next to impossible. I'm looking for a short term solution so that I can drive my truck again. I'm thinking of getting a second set of wheels that I can use on the 1/2 ton drums on the back. I can get matching wheels for the front with 5x5 bolt pattern and with baby moons nobody will be the wiser. It's not ideal and eventually I want to make everything stock but I also have to consider that not being able to drive the truck defeats the purpose of having it.

There's plenty of material to turn on the drum but the guy at the brake shop wasn't sure it could be turned. He thought the drum itself is warped.

For anyone who's interested, the rear axles seem to be the same on the 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton pickups. The front axles are a different story. 11" drums on the 3/4 ton and 10" on the 1/2. I thought I would be able to swap backing plates and use the smaller drums but as it turns out the hardware attaching the plate to the axle are different sizes too. So there's a lot more involved in a front brake swap.

I have been struggling for some time to fix the brakes on my B3C. Today I got them to the point where I was adjusting the brakes and found that one of my rear drums is not quite perfect. When I spin the drum it always rubs in the same spot on the rear brake shoe even when I have the shoes adjusted all the way in. I have a couple 1/2 ton drums and I slid one on there just for kicks and it fit fine and spun without rubbing. I'm guessing my original drum is out of round. After putting that 1/2 ton drum on there I got to wondering why can't I just use half ton drums and put different wheels on? Is there any reason not to do this? The axles look identical up to the drums and wheels. What am I missing here?

I've been reading all the topics I can find on rear ends for these pickups. I want to change out the rear end of my 3/4 ton due to the difficulty I've had trying to find brake drums. I'm considering the Cherokee and Grand Cherokee options but for the sake of keeping it somewhat original I'm looking at a half ton rear end out of a 51 1/2 ton. My question is will that rear end bolt in place "as is" into my B3C? Would I be able to use my existing driveline? Here is the ad I'm looking at: http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/pts/4822567791.html I know the bolt spacing is smaller but I found some 5x4.5 wheels with hub cap clips for cheap so I don't feel like that's a huge problem for the time being.

Are the brake drums for a B3B the same as a B3C? If so I think I might have found a set for a reasonable price.

The guy there said these drums were hard to find 30 years ago...that doesn't make me feel real confident about this. If I am unable to find replacements what is my next option? Do I have to get a different rear end for the truck?

Unfortunately one of them has a hairline crack in it so I don't think it would be wise to continue using it. Is there a good aftermarket option? I want to keep my truck as original as possible but safety trumps that!

Does anyone have a source for rear brake drums for my 52 B3C? Both of them need replaced and I'm having trouble finding any.

Either that or I had bad plugs or wires or rotor...I replaced them all the same morning.

Ok well I got some help today and realized I was misunderstanding the way in which the placement of the plug wires in the distributor went. I had them in the right order but the diagram in the service manual should not be taken literally, 12 o'clock isn't necessarily the same on there as it will be in the truck. This old stuff is all new to this young man! Anyhow, I replaced the plug wires, rotor, and spark plugs just in case and made sure the plug wires were in right and it fired right up. I was able to take it to the Cool Desert Night cruise tonight and it did very well. I think I had the only dodge truck there. The main show is tomorrow and we'll see if there are any others in the 800 or so vehicles registered. Thanks for the advice and patience once again.

I'm definitely going to check, just haven't been back out there yet. I think the order I have the plugs is correct but whether or not they are in the correct spots on the distributor is what I'm unsure of. I just read in another post that number one wire should be at 7 o'clock but going off the diagram in the shop manual it looks like one should be at 8. So I may have it one off.

I believe the order is correct 153624. Is there a good diagram for it? The service manual has one that I went by but it isn't very easy to decifer.