I know the best way to make drum brakes better is to get discs, but is there anything you can do to the drums to make them better? Stronger drum?

 

not that i know of, but i'd ask someone with a 2nd gen as some of them have rear drums (my fathers included). However i'd put discs on because its more efficient, plus I always laugh at those stickers they had on older T/As that said
'4 wheel disc' LOL

I Read up a little, apparently high quality shoes might help, but who knows.

 

Though I personally never experienced issues with the 82-88 Delco-Moraines, many members have--some even venturing the opinion that drums are superior to the above discs.

JamesC

 

One of the best things to do is make sure everything is working and adjusted correctly.

 

A properly setup rear drum system should have NO problem stopping the car. Problem is, most aren't adjusted properly or the brake fluid is contaminated from still being factory fluid. On a third generation F body, thats scary.

 

A larger drum would give you more surface/contact area, which should increase stopping power. Maybe different brake shoe material would also help a little....but in the end, discs will almost always provide better stopping power.

There's inherant issues with all drum bakes, mostly overheating/fading and the like. That being said, I run larger Ford Explorer drums on the rear of my car (I have to with the Moser 9") - and they do much better than the stock drums that came with the car. So much so that I'm really not looking to upgrade them to disk brakes in the near future.

 

My car stops fine in an everyday sense, but im thinking more for performance. Late brake into corners