Wide five brake drum info needed

I have a 37 pick up with the original wide five drums. I want to change from the mechanical brakes to hydrolic.

Will my drums work with the 39-48 backing plates. Are they all the same.

Also has anyone used the wilson welding backing plates with the up dated brake parts inside with an early wide five drum.

Thanks

 

Not sure if this is going to help, but just used the same backing plates and 12" brkes on a 37 thru 48 ford front axle and installed Buick 45 fin aluminum drums and everything work great.
not sure if that helps??

 

yes they work same as other later style drums.

 

Ok thats good to know, I was told that they may not work and I might have to use the 39 wide five drums because they had juice brakes originally.

Pics at eleven....

Thanks

 

37-39 will work... its the 36's that are a problem....

 

AH HA. I knew there was an issue somewhere with the early ones.

Thanks Zach, now all I have to do is decide on original backing plates and the stock ford brakes or the repo backing plates with the updated buick style brakes.

 

There's some good info in this thread that will help you. It starts with rear drums, but there is plenty of talk related to fronts.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=512153

And yes, 37-39 drums will work with Wilson and/or MT style Lincoln backing plates. You will have to use the narrower 1-3/4" shoes. Check with Wilson for his (obviously) or check with Vaphead (Riley Automotive) for the others. I used the MT style for mine. I use 37 or 38 drums with MT backing plates.

 

X2.
the search bar helps too!

 

uh yeah, I'm kinda new here, I'll try that next time

 

haha, damn FNG's!! maybe step back a minute and lurk. don't worry, you'll pick up on the little parts of it after a couple weeks ...

 

'39's which had hydraulic brakes used the same drums as '37 and '38 which had mechanical brakes. Although '36 has the wide 5 bolt pattern, you can't use '36 hubs/drums on the front. '36-'39 rears will interchange, '37-'39 fronts interchange.