I bought my 1993 Dakota in the year 2000. Since then it's been the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned. One of the things that has caused me some problems though is brakes, specifically the rear drum brakes. The other day I had no brakes (almost like a brake line broke) so I looked and the whole brake backing plate had spun on the axle. Evidently it rusted out at the mounts. As I look around there is absolutely nothing available. I can't find new or used. Is there an alternative that I can modify or has anyone experienced this and found a way around it?

 

It's not a part you'll usually find on a list, no. And new is NLA.

HOWEVER.

A good U-Pull-It will have them; you can look up, say, rear drums for the proper size on Car-Parts.COM and then call the boneyards listed and ask them; or you can replace the entire rear axle assembly (which is what I'd look at doing; if the plate is that rusted, what kind of shape is the AXLE housing in??)

If you order or pick up the rear axle, be sure to get it drum to drum; that way you've got spare hardware for all of it.

(I'd also do new bearings while doing the axle or backing plate swap; but eh, your truck, your money.)

RwP

 

Are there any rear disc conversion that would be a relatively easy swap??

 

I'm assuming you have 9" backing plates, because I had the same experience you did. You can get 10" backing plates from a million and one different Mopar vehicles. See my thread here:

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...ng-plates.html

Cliff notes from that thread: 1978 Dodge truck unknown model 10" backing plates, 8.75" axle (yes they fit the 8.25" axle mount on your Dakota),completely bolt up and compatible with all the hardware from the optional 10" drums from the 1st gen Dakota--which is important mostly because of the 1) stupid 6x bolt pattern for the drums and 2) the parking brake cables that are different lengths for different vehicles.

A quick ebay search yields this as an option. It's the first I saw so probably not the best but search using those keywords.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-x-2-5-BR...IAAOSwlXNbafND

Let me reiterate--there is NOTHING custom involved here, no custom fab, no special brake proportioning adjustments. Buy the 10" drums and hardware kit for a first gen Dakota, bolt up and go, the only difference from the 9" on your truck is they will have more power and a ton more heat dissipation. They've been on my truck for almost a year and they work perfect.