So i bought a 99 ram 2500 5.9 Cummins, I was told that the rear drums were warped and the axel would have to be changed, and the guy was gonna put an 01 axel in it for the disk breaks, would that work?

 

Why not just change the drums, and re-do the brakes??? Replacing the whole axle because the drums are warped seems a bit extreme....

 

I was told that it wouldn’t work and the axel would have to be replaced

 

If the housing and axle shafts are straight and true, just replace the brakes.

 

A disc brake rear axle would work fine, as long as its at least a Dana 70 or Dana 80 axle behind the Cummings. I swapped my drum brake Dana 60 in my truck to a later model disc brake Dana 60 rear without any issue, however, unless you are getting the disc brake axle cheap, it's typically not an inexpensive swap. Fixing the drum brake issue with your existing rear axle would be the cheaper route to go, as others have stated.

 

Let me guess, he just happens to have a disk brake rear layin' about he would sell you 'cheap'?

Warped drums don't trash an axle. They are replaceable. And easily at that.

 

Well... new drums are $300 a pop and an axle from a yard is $400 or less so... maybe he wasnt wrong but thats a lot of work for a set of unknown brakes. Lol

im wondering if it has the stock axle to begin with?

 

Just FYI, might want to do a bit more shopping around - just checked RockAuto and the highest priced rear drum they sold for that truck was right at $100 per brand new drum, plus shipping.

 

$100 cdn? I doubt it. If so id bet$150 shipping. Lol

 

Checked it out. $140 for the better ones. Thats pretty cheap. Definitely makes it hard to support local guy but its in my nature to shop local when possible.