I have been working on my front brakes on my '56 F-100. They are the stock drum brakes. I took off the brake drums and looked at my brake shoes and thought they were getting a little thin so I decided to replace them. I took my drums into one of my local O'Reilly's to have them turned . It turns out they are about 1 mm over the discard spec so they won't turn them. But they sold me two new drums they happen to have in stock at the store across town. So I drive over there picked and them up. The counter guy mentions he thought one was "older" than the other since they came in different looking boxes. They both were BrakeBest with the same part number of 2611DGS. So I get them home, open the boxes up and find that even though they are the same brand name, and part number, they are not quite the same. One has an external weight welded on to the outher face of the drum, and the other one doesn't.Maybe they were manufactured by two different Chinese companies. One looks externally balanced, and the other must be internally balanced I am thinking. I called the store and they say just put them on and run them. So my question is...would you do that? Or would you return one and have them order one that would match the other?

Thanks and hope you had a great Labor Day weekend!

 

I've seen that before. One needed balancing, the other one didn't. The drums are actually two pieces welded together. Steel centers, cast iron drum. Look close and you can see the welds. The weight is right at the edge of the steel center.

 

Thanks Mixer!


So you wouldn't see a problem using them then?

 

Not in the least. You could go through a hundred boxes and probably find 25 that didn't have weights.

 

Thanks Bob!

I will do that. I appreciate your advice!