Drum Brakes

[Shaun4BigBlocks]

Hello All,

New to the forum (membership app mailed).  Just recently acquired a 1977 on a Dodge chassis with a 440/747/D70 combo.  It is 90 miles away.  It was one of those ?it has sat for 15 years, if you can get it running and drive it out of my yard it is yours? type deals.

So, anyways? I am a mechanic by trade so the mechanical aspect is the easy part.  The hard part can be obtaining some parts, as you can not exactly select American Clipper from a drop down box on Rock Auto.  Many of the parts can be obtained by either selecting a 1977 Dodge M300 or W300. 

Here is my problem, the above two items show 12x3 to be the size for the 1 ? ton rear drums.  I am trying to obtain a spindle socket as my passenger rear is locked up- the only thing holding me back from driving it home.  The hill-billy method is to beat the nut(s) with a hammer and screw driver/chisel.  This works, but I do not want to mutilate my cherry OEM parts.  Also, you need the socket so as to use a torque wrench for re-assembly to set the bearing pre-load properly, otherwise you will end up being that guy who does not understand why he keeps burning through bearings or ruining his hubs.

So? the socket is hard to find, as some of you may know, at least for 72-78.  79-84.5 all use the larger nut and the socket is a dime a dozen.  My source can find the socket but he needs to know if I have 12? or 15? drums.  I was assuming I had 12? drums because that is what Rock Auto listed for 1.25 tons but he said that often the RV?s got some of the extreme heavy duty options such as box trucks etc.

Can someone please verify for me what size drums a 1977 has?  I am 90 miles away from it so I would hate to waist a round trip just to get the measurements.  I should have done so when I got the motor running, but never dreamt Dana 70 information to be so scarce.  I have always played with GM 14 bolts where there is enough info for a novice to DYS.  The Dana 70 is the red head step child of rear ends, but it is stout and 440 friendly

[Toedtoes]

The clippers were built on the Dodge B300 chassis (not the W300 or M300 - those were the chassis for Class A RVs).  There is only one option for the Dodge B300 440 engine, so you should be safe choosing whatever that says for parts.

There were no changes to the chassis during construction of the house - the house was built for the B300 chassis without modification.  According to Rock Auto, all B300 lugs for 1977 were 12s. 

[Shaun4BigBlocks]

Thank you for clarifying the platform, I never would have dreamt that those were built on a uni-body chassis.  What an embarrassing oversight.  In hindsight the choice makes sense with the oil embargo stuff going on at the time.  So now it comes down to 12x2.5 or 12x3- I would imagine the later.  I will be sure to post all the specs and part numbers I used successfully in a few weeks when I re-engage the beast.

[Toedtoes]

Can you buy both and return the one that doesn't fit?

From what I saw, the 2.5 appeared to be indicated for the SRW chassis - so i'd be inclined to go with the 3 if I could only get one on a guess.