Which size drums on 69 Dart? And some other brake questions.

str12-340 said
you have a 55 year old car. Thinking that the drums have never been upgraded to 10 inch brakes (an easy upgrade to make) is a fools errand. Pull a drum and measure the inside diameter of the drum...

My mother is the original owner of the car, so I amazingly do actually know that the drums were never upgraded. But yeah, I guess I should measure them.

Professor Fate said
Yup- it SHOULD be 9 inch, but could have been ordered with HD brakes... you've got it apart, just measure the inside diameter. It won't be exactly 9 or 10 inches, but you'll be close enough to know.
There is only one hose going to the rear- the rest is all hard lines.
You could replace the cylinders without removing the shoes, but why? You should probably replace the shoes too, especially since the cylinders were leaking. Brake fluid does not play well with the friction material of the shoes...

Yeah, I put the wheels back on so I could put the car back in the garage overnight. I don't know why I didn't think to measure them before that. I think I was frustrated after spending five hours getting one drum off (long story).

The brakes were done not that many miles (a few thousand), but many many many years ago. So the shoes are in pretty good shape. It didn't really look like brake fluid was getting on them. But maybe I shouldn't be lazy about it. :-)

Thanks for the replies!