9 vs 10 inch drums

I pulled a 89 d35 with limited slip and 10 in drums. I am thinking of swapping axles on my 90 which has d35 open and 9" drums. Which brake is better? I like the 10 number but the width is less. Anybody have any insites? Can I simply swap back plates to keep the 9 incher?

Do both axles have the same gear ratio?, mileage? Personally I would keep the LS and add GC discs the sell the open diff with the 10" setup to pay for the disc parts...or get an 8.25 and swap in discs...or...

Yes and yes. You mean there is a market for open 35C's? What do you think a good asking price would be?

I'm a little short on cash flow so I want to do with what is here. I think I will swap the 10 for the 9 on the axle.

MarkdaleXJ said:

Do both axles have the same gear ratio?, mileage? Personally I would keep the LS and add GC discs the sell the open diff with the 10" setup to pay for the disc parts...or get an 8.25 and swap in discs...or...

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Ok... if he's going to wheel it even a dying limited slip is better then open axle ebrake works wonders ). You can't really get that much money for a D35 (unless you find a sucker ) so I would swap the other one in, run the 10" brakes and not worry about the discs (discs are nice, but they are a bit of work and $ in parts to complete, especially on an older rig, what year is the xj in question?). Lastly what's the ultimate goal for the jeep? wheel? daily driver?

I swapped a 10" drum axle into my 90 to get a different axle ratio. After a professional brake shop got done with it, it stopped much better than it did with the original 9" drum axle. I got in this argument back when this was the xjforum, and we did some comparitive measuring and calculating. The 10" drum pads do have 4% more contact area than the 9" drum pads.

Fred

The problem with my 90 is that the rear end is open and growling. I thought the transplant would be a good idea since it is free. The 90 has over 174K on it. The 89 axle has 100 something. I checked it out and the diff is fine all I needed to do was replace the wheel bearings and pads.

My 92 has a LS and it is great. Both rigs are DD with the 92 going becoming trail ready soon.