bikeboy1713

Everybody is talking about fixing the rear brakes. My rears are working....not great but good enough. It is the front brakes that really suck on my truck. Is there any aftermarket stuff for the fronts. Some more powerfull calipers would help. It almost seems as if the the brakes are balanced wrong from front to back.

hippie

My brakes weren't real good either untill I had everything replaced. It seemed like when I applied the brakes it would go faster Removed the ABS system. even had the rear wheel valve removed and replaced it with a stainless steel bushing. I had to have it made a a machine shop it was $80.00, but better than $170.00 for a new valve from Dodge. The rear brakes will lock up before the front ones, but I've learned to deal with it. When I have my fifth wheel on no problem at all.

no_6_oh_no

First off, "good enough" may not be good enough. A lot will depend on how soon the ABS kicks in and how well it is working. Just because it locks and releases doesn't mean they are working right. The front brakes are totally inadequate to stop the truck id the rears won't work right. They are barely adequate if everything is working right.

Forget the rears for now, what have you replaced on the front? Calipers? Brake lines? Pads? Turn the rotors? Your truck is 15 yrs old and has 21k, its about due for some parts. The calipers in the early 90's had composition pistons. They sucked! Period. Aside from wanting to jam out and ruin things, they also tended to swell, gum, and not apply correctly. The brake lines don't last forever either. They will soften with time and tend to ballon when pressure comes up and there goes your apply because the MC is out of stroke. The rotors need to be turned to get rid of any glazing that could be there. A glazed rotor with even new shoes is losing a lot of stopping power.

Since you think the rears are good, get a set of loaded calipers from CarQuest with the gold series shoes. Best bang for the buck in brake shoes. Get some new brake lines and turn the rotors so you have a good surface.

There are not many parts upgrades for the front brakes available unless you want to adapt Cheby parts to it and its not really needed if things are working correctly. Good luck.

Ron E

Hey, how much do you think you will be asking for your "no stopping POS"? I have a friend looking with little success around here, and may be willing to make the trip.

brainfade

Hey guys, didn't see this until just now, but better late than never eh?

I work at a test facility for a major OEM brake supplier and test brakes all day every day so I thought I'd chip in what I know. First thing is that while OEMs have to meet some pretty strict standards (FMVSS 105 < 10k lbs applies to most of our trucks) aftermarket friction producers don't have to meet any standard at all. No federal requirement. Ocasionally, an aftermarket supplier will bring some material in for testing but it doesn't happen often. One of the few who does is Performance Friction Company and from what I've seen they have a good product, comparible to OEM for the vehicle we tested though that vehicle was not a first gen dodge of course.

What you may not know is that the company that supplies the OEM parts is required to supply replacement parts to the dealers for service. So, if you want OEM parts, that have been tested to federal standards that's where you have to go. Not saying they are the only parts, or even the best parts, but at least you know what you're getting.

As for aftermarket parts, both on pads and shoes there is an 'edge code' which is printed on the part, often on the edge of the friction material. The code will have several numbers and letters, then a space and two letters together. IE: H71AA7 FF. The two letters together refer to the cold and hot performance characteristics of the friction. A higher letter indicates a more aggresive material. For instance, a G rated material will produce more deceleration for a given pressure in the system than an E rated material. The G rated material will also generally wear faster. It's been my experiance that the 'Lifetime' warrentied pads and shoes tend to be much less aggressive than the 1 year pads, and that due to the increased hardness tend to wear rotors more. Metalic pads, while they tend to be more aggresive also accelerate rotor wear.

Hope this helps.

chuxtruk

For having 245k on it, the brakes in my truck are about as good as they were new imho. I had a brake job done at Les Schwab ONE TIME because I had to have it done as I had an emergency trip to make and I didn't have the time or energy to do it. It was one of their "Lifetime Brake Jobs" and with less than 30k miles on these brakes, the truck started to shimy when braking, just like when I took it in originally. So I took it back to Les Schwab where the idiot ground the wobble out of the rotors, sure that did it. What it also did was to put on the same wear and tear as another 75k miles. Anyway, after arguing with these guys, I said screw it and went and bought the best after market rotors I could find and put them on myself. Everything else they did was fine and is still in there. These new rotors have NEVER been any trouble and they still work great and there's probably 40k on the brakes at present.
In your case I would start replacing EVERYTHING even though you have extremely low mileage but perhaps I'd first start with replacing the pads. Those old stock pads may have the right numbers and the blessing of the testers but in "real world conditions" stock parts seldom perform as well as some after market examples and brake pads made today are COMPLETELY superior in every way to what they were making back then. I'd start there and keep going till you found the problem. Bad brakes were never a standout problem on (most?) these trucks from what I've read and heard through the years though the symptems could be exagerated if something wears wrong.
There's another advantage of the stick tranny in these trucks....by downshifting when coming up to stop you're "saving" your brakes compared to the automatic transmission. I think I had 120k on the truck when I did my first repad and got another 60k on that before I had to do the whole brake system completely. I doubt there's many a/t trucks that get that many miles out of a brake job... Chuck

andyr354

brakes are cheaper than the trans work. All that downshifing wears the trans to.

nailhead

Agreed: downshifting a standard to save your brakes is spending $10 to save 2-- unless you like replacing clutches.
- Chris

89dieselkong

I just has EVERYTHING replaced front and rear...springs, wheel cylinders, rotors, pads etc. I put 3" on the rear and have to admit, she stops as well as a big ole' truck is going to. I had a '96 3/4 ton Suburban with the 454 BB in it and performance rotors in front with drums in the rear. The Dodge stops just as well as that did...

chuxtruk

Agreed: downshifting a standard to save your brakes is spending $10 to save 2-- unless you like replacing clutches.

Besides saying B.S. to that statement, I'll also say you're probably an automatic tranny user unfamiliar with proper manual transmission up and down shifting techniques. If not, you were never taught the right way to drive a stick. You're telling us that you just roll er up to a stop WITHOUT downshifting, like an a/t driver would do, without any downshifting at all? Talk about un neccesary brake wear...wow!! Saving brakes or more precisely, getting more mileage out of a set of brakes is another advantage of a manual tranny truck. In fact, I'd bet my last dollar that in identical trucks, with the only difference being one had an a/t and the other a manual tranny, and with identical drivers, the truck with the manual tranny will get more miles before he has to do anything to the brakes than the auto tranny truck will. And being driven properly, as in being downshifted while rolling up to a stop, is one reason why.
I'd rather believe in my own experience with such things, having currently over 245k on my 93 with the original clutch and with probably lots of life left in it. AND IT GETS "DOWNSHIFTED" EVERYTIME to at least 3rd gear while rolling up to a stop. Why? Because it's a stick and that's the way they're driven PROPERLY. Saying I'm downsifting to save on brakes is crazy. And I'm not downshifting to be buying new clutches either becasue it hasn't happened like that here. I'd say anyone who doesn't downshift a stick in any vehicle so equiped while coming/rolling up to a stop is probably the type that waits at the stop line when waiting to turn left at a light without a left turn arrow too, instead of creeping out to the center of the intersection so more vehicles can make the turn instead of just yourself when the light changes...much to the diismay of the folks behind em. Wow...a manual tranny driver that doesn't downshift?? I KNEW they were good trucks!! Fwiw. Chuck

Jim Lane

I have a 1991 D-350 Dually LE and my brakes work fine however the RWAL has been unplugged for a few years.
Seems the tricks to having good brakes I have found are:

* Manually adjust the rear shoes, don't trust the self-adjusters because they either never adjust of they will run the shoes through the drum.

* Check your brake hardware and make sure it is on properly and not broken. (I had some springs break and tear up a drum.) You are supposed to replace the hardware after several brake jobs.

* Be sure there is NO air in the hydraulic system, it is an art to bleed them right. Don’t use old brake fluid to top off M/C it retains moisture and screws up everything.

* Check your vacuum pump with a gauge at each chamber to be sure they are BOTH pumping. Low vacuum = low boost.

* Check the front brakes and see that the pads wear fairly even meaning inboard vs. outboard calipers could be a problem. Replace them, they are cheap.

* I use only premium grade lining and not the cheap lifetime stuff.
Most of the lining from Auto Zone ect is real hard so it last a long time but won't STOP worth a darn.
I get mine from my small local parts house and I get a customer satisfaction warranty..
When they start to get low, I bring them in and they GIVE me new shoes, pads, calipers, brake cleaner, can of grease, brake fluid, cotter pins, lock for axle nut FREE because they are not to my satisfaction. (their idea)
It is one of those parts houses where you drive in and they know your name and ask how the truck is running. Kinda like CHEERS for parts.

About a year ago the eccentric bearing disintegrated in the vacuum pump without warning. What a scare in traffic, it took both feet on the pedal to bring it to a stop and I could have taken out several small cars with disastrous results. I would hate to think what would have happened if my linings weren’t on top shape.
I wish the 727 trans would lock up so I could have an exhaust brake but I guess not. However an eddy current retarder would be nice.
Jim

nailhead

Been driving standard trannies all my life, including several with crashboxes. I prefer them. The only vehicle I've ever owned with a slushbox is a 1977 M886-- they don't come any other way. So, your assumption that I'm new to shifting and thus not qualified to comment on it is patently wrong. I will concede that you are right on the downshift-before-stopping method, but only if a heel-&-toe/double-clutch technique is used. This I use if the vevicle is heavily loaded, or towing. Can you do that, Professor?
-Chris