Is there any major advantage to the wilwood dynapro rear disc kit vs the stock drum brakes? I've heard both from a big difference to a waste of money. I'm looking at buying a dana 60 for my car so I will be starting from scratch with rear brakes, not upgrading to a new kit. Is the wilwood kit that much better at stopping or is it just going to be a weight saving difference over the drums?

Mainly weight, fronts do 70-80% of the braking.

No, and weight savings is the major upside, based on what you have shared, IMO.

Lets see lack of brake fad, weight loss, Better stopping power. If you have to buy drums, hardware and shoes you are getting closer to the cost of Wilwoods. If rear drums were so good they would be still using them.

lack of brake fade would be the biggest advantage over drums. unless you plan on road racing this will probably be useless difference.
they will be a little lighter and your choice of break pad compounds will be larger with disc.


if you go rear disc you will need to buy special E brake cables and must use green bearings.

PA is like Colorado not flat land but mountains. Tell me brake fad doesn't matter coming down a mountain pass of 10,000 ft.and drop 3 or 4,000 ft. that is twisty. Granted some folks live in the flat lands so it might be a issue for them. We have cut offs on some pass's that go uphill and is sand for run a ways when the brakes fail.

No argument on brake fade, but you're much better off improving the front brakes.
Only when those are no longer the limiting factor, improve the rear.
Especially in your scenario, coming down a mountain the front brakes will see even more heat because of the exaggerated weight transfer.

Big rigs still use drums. They haul 80,000 lbs so you think they use drums for nostalgia's sake?

Rear disc brakes in new cars is a "Keeping up with the Joneses" issue. One company installs them, brags about it even though it made no difference...the public buys into the safety claims and soon every company abandons rear drums.

In extreme conditions, the discs will fade less and weigh less. In the overwhelming majority of street driving, drums do the job well for less money.

I did a rear disc swap into my 70 Charger in 2006, merely because seeing 10" drums through my big wheels looked cheesy. The discs looked better but performed no different.

When I bought my rear disc I had to buy drums and the hardware. Disc were only about $150.00 more so why not and they came with the e brake cables. If you are also rebuilding the rear end to make every thing new, green bearings are a wash. Yes drums are cheaper but I would rather give up 50hp and have better braking in traffic with no fad.

I don't work on "big rigs" but I do work on transit busses. The reason that drums are more popular are that they are cheap, and have much larger friction area. The larger friction area means they don't wear out as fast. Big rigs and the like have air brakes, so the line pressure is a fraction of what is available on juice brakes. The drums are huge 16.5" dia and we have them up to 10.5" wide- and the largest ones are ALWAYS on the REAR. My point is that cars and light trucks =/= HD trucks and busses. We had some busses that disk brakes- all 4 corners- and they worked fine, but the pads wore out quickly and the pads would come off the backing @ 5/16" thickness, so we were constantly replacing them.

Disc brakes started appearing on the Kenworth manufacturing line over 10 years ago. (Class 8 big rigs). First on the front, then it wasn't unusual to see them on all axles.

They are an option, so it's pretty obvious that money is a factor. Also, big rig drums are insanely heavy.

Disc's are more conducive/effective for ABS modulation ( ie faster), and IMO, why they are being phased into big rigs.

If you are fading rear brakes on the street in a car, you are driving seriously way over your talent level.

Big trucks/buses have larger rear brakes because the rears are often dual tires (larger contact patch), and have the higher weight percentage, and on long WB's relative to COG height, the weight transfer is much less.

Then your system wasn't designed properly (I recall reading about your installation issues), I've been custom building/retrofitting 4 wheel disc set ups on old iron for years in my personal builds and customers builds, I enjoy driving at extremely high rates of speed on the road and the track, and I expect/demand superior braking, you ain't gonna get that with drums on any point of the vehicle...


FYI... I used to perform brake service on Cement trucks/tractor trailers/Tri Axle dump trucks/etc/etc, your comparison of these drum brakes to those on the a$$ end of an automobile is akin to mountains vs molehills

So under what type of driving does a car with large discs up front and drums in the rear, is the braking performance comprised because of the rear brakes fading?

I already have a wilwood kit on the front. Since I'm swapping to a dana 60, I'm buying new brakes for the new rear while I'm at it. Since im starting from nothing with the rear, that's why I'm considering the discs. Is there any problem with the green bearings in the rear. I've heard that the original version had problems but the newer vesion was ok. I don't want to go through the trouble of buying a new rear and installing it just to have bearing issues later on.

Where are you coming up with a 50 hp loss from the rear disc kit? Just the drag of the discs over the drums?

ha ha, another opinion thread.
Lets go.



I tend to follow this line of thought.

Not to mention they cost less to produce in the first place.

If you feel you need discs go for it.
As for the down hill mountain scenario,
Cars used to run those mountains back when ours were new.
Drums worked if you knew how to drive the mountains.
Of course; Speeds and weight have increased a lot since then.

It all boils down to what trips your trigger.
You want 4 wheel disc? Go for it.
Myself I don't need dics at either end, When crusing my vintage tin.
I cruise on 2 lane black top and enjoy the scenery.
Stop in small towns and meet the locals.

If I'm in traffic where folks tend to accelerate at stop signs, pass in merge or turn lanes and basically think the first guy home wins or something like that.
Then I need to be in something more modern.

I meant if I had to spend the money on brakes and not buy that last 50hp I would do that.
On disk brakes not being better than drums, some may not. My wife's 03 Dakota R/T had factory single piston 4 wheel disc brakes I didn't think that it stop all that well. When the R/T was replaced when it was hit it was replaced with a 07 BMW X5 with sport suspension. It has 4 piston on all four and is heaver and that beast stops fast, not Porsche fast but tons better than the Dodge and that is with factory 20".
If you have to buy all new brakes for the Dana go with the Wilwoods you will like them. Myself I don't like the small single piston conversions as I don't think they add much to braking over drums. They are cheaper and have a place as 50's and old cars brakes are not that good, but I would still buy Wilwoods. I have first set Wilwoods for the front of a 57 mopar that Magnum Force built. I sent them my spindles so they could mock it up.

Is there a way to mount a wilwood kit on the rear without the green bearings? I've also read that the rear disc brake kits move the wheel and tire out towards the quarter panel to due to the different spacing compared to the drums. Any truth to this?

Mine rear tires seemed to have moved a negligible amount, if any. I don't see a way for factory bearing adjusters to really fit within the assembly.