Switching light duty to heavy duty brakes?

[Russell]

Hey guys!

What would be involved with switching a 14 bolt from the smaller light duty drums to the heavy duty drums? I've got a 4.10 diff under my truck, but it has a light duty drum setup on it, and the shoes are completely worn to nothingness. I've got my old 2wd 14 bolt with a set of brand new shoes, springs, and HD drums that I'd like to swap on rather than buying a whole bunch of light duty stuff.

How much work is it to get the old backing plates off the axle? The bolts look rusted in there solid...

 

[sweetk30]

take off hub/drum then remove 4 bolts and backing plate comes off.

 

[Russell]

Any suggestions for getting those bolts out without breaking them? I can sandblast the parts that are sticking out, but what about the part inside? Or do they come out relatively easily?

The backing plates on my old diff will come off easy, its in real good shape with only minor surface rust.

 

[3rdshiftdesign]

Heat, PB Blaster, Heat, PB Blaster, etc. the heat will get them out easy.

 

[uglyangelracing]

you know what works on that idea better than pb blaster ( although that stuff is great). Heat the nut up and run a stick of parafin around it. Because the part is hot the parafin melt and it is sucked into the threads. Didnt belive it when I heard it but I gave it a shot and its been my favorite way ever since.

 

[Russell]

you know what works on that idea better than pb blaster ( although that stuff is great). Heat the nut up and run a stick of parafin around it. Because the part is hot the parafin melt and it is sucked into the threads. Didnt belive it when I heard it but I gave it a shot and its been my favorite way ever since.

Thats a neat idea, I'll give it a shot with some parafin I have lying around...

Thanks for all your advice guys! I'll tackle this later on.