I am soon going to be going through the rear brakes on my truck (00', 2500 auto). I've been researching any possible upgrades and i am going to be installing the GM wheel cylinders. At one point during my research I thought I read something about installing 3500 brake shoes on a 2500, but i havent been able to find any information on this. My questions are: 1) are 3500 brake shoes larger than 2500? 2) if so, will the 3500 shoes fit in a 2500?
By the way, i have a dana 70 in the rear.

Any info would be appreciated.

Cory

 

I did this a couple of weeks ago and they work great, almost as good as discs. I got the cheapest standard 2500 shoes from O Rieley's ( On the advice from Sam Peterson the brake guru ) for about $13. The GM cylinders are a tight fit but they do go in. I also went to a brake shop and got the fluid flushed and pressure bled - $25.00 - I also replaced the drums and had some vibration. I took the drums back and they turned them- took off about .006" they said- and no more vibration. Very pleased with the performance.

Tom

 

Wolfman,

Is your ABS working ok?? Don't see a sig so I don't know what year you're runnuing.

 

You don't need to replace the shoes just the cylinders. Unless the shoes are oil soaked or worn (which is highly unlikey for a Dodge ) I did change my shoes, but with the 2500 size. I installed the larger cyinders and bled the brakes myself, but power flushing as suggested is a great idea.

You'll have to adjust them yourself. Don't rely on the self adjuster. They never seem to work right for me.

I had "vibration or shutter" when the rears brakes got hot. After 3-500 miles it went away. Seems the shoes needed to seat in.

Best $30 bucks you'll ever spend on your truck.

Hold on to your coffee when you first use them! I had my dog in the bed and he darn near broke the rear window!

 

Tazman, I have a 98.5 automatic 2500. No problems with the ABS, extreme braking will cause rear wheel lockup but this is not a problem for me. I don't know how this would be on ice or snow, I think the ABS will allow only one wheel to lockup.

 

Wolf,

That's just it, your rear wheels lock up. Remember it's RWAL (rear wheel anti-lock).

I used to feel the RWAL kick in periodically, tickity tick on the pedal. Now (after mod) they just lock up.

Not too sure about this.....I think I'm in for some nasties this winter.


Anyone got a comment/explanation???

 

The rear wheel anti lock should still function but if you have leaking axle seals that will casue the problem you are having tazman.

Pull the adjusting rubber from the backing plate on the rear drum and have a look in there with a flash light to see if you have a leak.


Jason

 

I hear you Steve,

That was the reason I went into the mod in the first place.

Leaky seals, new shoes oh, what the heck, let's do the mod.

No, this is not the case here. Appreciate the thought though.

 

So do we loose the RWAL when doing the cylinder upgrade? I am too looking at changing the rear brakes. My truck has 174K miles on it....

 

That's exactly what I'm trying to determine.

When I changed mine out, the ABS light greeted me when I went for a test drive. Thought "no biggie", probably a by-product of bleeding the new cylinders.

I disconnected the bats to clear codes and no more ABS light but I've had a few hard stops that resulted in locked up back wheels on dry pavement.

No more pulse in the pedal.....no more RWAL

Did I miss something??

 

Tazman,

Not sure if this applies to the Dodge, but I had a GMC Typhoon that I had the brakes serviced by the dealer. About a week later, the ABS controller went out. A few months later I stumbled accross an article on the web that mentioned if a certain procedure was not followed, debris in the fluid might get loose and end up going through the ABS controller. The controller then acted as a $900.00 filter. I tried to get the shop to reimburse me for their error, but they said they did everything correctly. This may not be the case with your controller, just something else to look at.

 

Hmmm...

I would think/hope the ABS light would come on again.

Truck's going in for a cold weather high idle/3 cyl cut out ECM tweak next week.

I'm sure a stored code will come up, most likely a few more than expected

Thanks all.

 

I have a 2000 3/4 ton 4x4,what year GM wheel cylinders and what application are you guys useing for this mod?

 

Some guys have had to adjust the proportioning valve to rebalance the brake system. Do a search on it and see what pops up. If you come up empty there are other places on the net to look. Do a google search and see what you can find.