Replacing obsolete/rare brakes, with something else?

Is it feasible to replace brake technology with something completely different? And how would a person go about even attempting such a thing?

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We have an antique mid-1970s electric CitiVan, which is a bizarre little thing that has a top road speed of about 35 mph / 55 kph.



It uses a type of miniature Bendix airplane wheel brakes which are now rare, and so the brake parts are hard to find and expensive.

Just replacing the rubber drum brake cylinder seals is around US$100 a wheel, which is very expensive:

CitiCar / CitiVan / ComutaCar brake parts:
http://www.evperformance.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=18_45

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It seems to me that we would be better off just dumping the weird old Bendix brakes and going with something more modern with cheaply available parts, such as ATV or snowmobile or golf cart hydraulic brakes.

Ideally, I would need to find a "brake spider" assembly that has the same axle bolt hole layout as the old Bendix brakes, as a bolt-on replacement.

I don't know if there is any sort of standardization of mounting bolt holes for brake spider assemblies.

I have no idea where to even begin here.

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It would probably be possible to grind off or weld-fill the old mounting bolt plate on the axles, and drill new mounting holes for something completely different, but I am trying to not hack up the original car too much.