Are My Drum Brakes Original?

[fubar fj]

My rear drums have the external adjusters with jam nuts, like you'd expect. The fronts, however, have slots in the backing plates to reach adjusters on the wheel cylinders ( 2 per wheel ). Could the mismatch still be correct for 1961?

Would the specs be different for the fronts- like cylinders, drums, etc?

Thanks for the help...

 

[Living in the Past]

Here is a thread about the brakes on the 25s, single wheel cylinder on both front and rear brakes. Cylinder is at the top, on the 40s the two cylinders are on the sides. Of my 25s has the later two wheel cylinder but they are mounted top and bottom on the 25 axles. Hope this helps.



https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=46127


John

 

[Cruiser_Nerd]

John's right. Sounds like the brakes, or probably the whole front end was swapped out. (which would explain how you don't need original wheels up front). Take a few pictures of the backing plate, knuckle arms and diff and we should be able to figure out what you've got in there. Could be a real mix of years.

 

[fubar fj]

I'll get some pictures this evening, if possible. The wheel cylinders are mounted at 3:00 and 9:00, which leads me to think they're FJ40's.

I can't wait to sort the brakes out. Then, I will feel better about spending money to make the Cruiser LOOK better! I've been able to drive it daily for a while now, but emergency stops might not end so well...

Next would be setting up an emergency brake. I don't have one at all now.