Anyone Know Of A 15" Wheel That Will Clear 11" Drum Brakes?

I bought a very nice set of 15" KH wheels with new tires at the Willys reunion in Fulton.

I intended to use these on my CJ5 which has been upgraded to 11" drum brakes all around.

When I tried to mount them today I found these wheels will not clear the 11" drums due to where the center is riveted to the rim.

I could probably use spacers, but would rather have wheels that would work without them.

Anybody out there ran into a similar problem?

 

I have aftermarket aluminum 15" rims on my CJ with 11" brakes. No problem.

 

I have aftermarket 15x8 steel wheels that fit the 11 brakes just fine. I believe they're Wheel Vintiques.

 

Do you have finned drums or smooth?

 

I have a set of d window wheels from Quadratec 15x7 with 3.75 inch backspacing. Fits fine over my 76's 11 inch drums

 

Any of the 70s vintage stock steel 15x6 wheels will work since they came with 11 brakes.

 

I know your problem. The brake drums on a 73 were not finned and will work fine if you can find them. My brother had a set of KH wheels on his 73. I bought them from him for My 74 with finned drums and they would not fit so we traded brake drums. Both the 73 and the 74 have 11 inch brakes.

 

They are smooth drums, not finned, but all drums are not created equally.

 

Humm the drums on the 73 were the factory drums. As I remember the KH wheels only liked maybe 1/8 inch fitting up, thought about grinding the fins down a little on my jeep but my brother said lets just swap drums. But that has been 35 years ago I may not remember all that I need to.

 

I ran 1 inch spacers and still had to grind the calipers. Not a big deal, an inch isn't noticeable and there's plenty of metal on the calipers to grind.

EDIT: I missed that you have drums. Heh. Not sure what you'd grind. Oops.

 

I had the same issue when fitting 8" KH on a '72, the rivets hit on the front drums. Like Ol Fogie posted above, I swapped the finned drums for smooth 11" drums and all was good. The '72 already had smooth drums on the rear.
-Donny

 

US Wheel Series 68 I have 15 x 6 with the correct backspacing for a stock flat fender and 11" brakes non finned drums.

 

Did you ever resolve this matter? I'm looking at some 11 inch brakes. I don't think I have KH rims, but they are a stock CJ rim from an unknown year.

Thanks.

 

As I recall, it's the Kelsey-Hayes 8" wide wheels that would not fit. These came on the pre-72 Renegades (Ren 1 and 2) that used 10" drum brakes.

No guarantee though - there are many different wheels that are represented as factory Jeep wheels. The wheel that went with the intermediate Jeeps is 15" by 6" wide. I would just get the brakes and measure. Or buy a replacement drum and see if it fits flat inside the wheel.

 

I ended up putting 3/4" spacers on that Jeep. I have found that all brake drums are not created equally. When I do the 11" drum conversion I order brake drums for a 73 CJ5 or a Bronco, making sure they are non finned, some are thicker than others which is what I have on that CJ5. The same wheels clear the 11" drums on my CJ2A, but I don't remember whether the two sets came from the same supplier or not.

 

The 1972-73 CJ-5 drums (PN 999728) are not finned. 1975-77ish uses finned drums (PN 5352476), and 1974 is split. If the finned drums will fit, I would use those - the fins are an improvement. Jeep warns you must use these drums in pairs, both the same left and right. I presume you could have a different style front and rear, but still paired on the axle.

Also, Jeep describes the difference between these drums as construction, not fins. The earlier drums have a center welded to the outer part, while the later style is cast together.

I went to RockAuto and these drums are now about $50 each. Last I looked - maybe a couple years ago? - you could buy the plain drums for about $20 each. I don't know whether this is a supply issue, or inflation, or because these older applications are getting scare enough that the higher production and stocking costs are justified. Today you might consider keeping the used drums if they can be turned.

 

Hello Andy,
I've got 2), '75, 11", finned drums that are freshly turned & I will give to you when I can get down there. Let me know if you could use 'em , perhaps on another CJ5 ?

 

Do you guys know if different 11 inch brake drums are different depths? I wonder if I could try different drums to alleviate my drum rubbing on backing plate issue.