2500CTD

Ok I got the 1 ton rear cylinders that were supposed to go on today during the tire rotation. Pulled the rear drums off and They dont look like "normal" brakes. Went to autozone and looked it up in a haynes. No luck my brakes are pictured. The biggest thing is the return spring. It looks like only one return spring and it goes from one shoe to the other. The top pin, where the normal 2 return springs attach to, looks like a bolt there is a nut on the backside of the backing plate. Because of that I cant figure out how to remove the parking brake lever off. Anyone have pics or can email the brake pages from the FSM???I think the truck is winning

Partsman

The wheel cyl deal thats talked about here stops at the 99 year model. You have a Kelseh-Hayes(Ford type) system and I don't think you need it. The wheel cyls you bought will not fit anyway.

firestorm

I too was going to upgrade to the cheby wheel cylinders, and Ram 3500 shoes. Is this what you are refering to?

2500CTD

Yes I was I got the cylinders already. Just to be sure I had the napa guy pull a set of cylinders for my truck. Only thing I saw different is the brake lines enters at a slightly different angle. Nothing to difficult take care of. I dont have the bigger brake shoes yet. I cant even figure out how the old ones come off. I'll try to find a couple pics of the brakes. I did hear that the 3500 are bigger than the 2500's but the Chevy cylinders are bigger yet.

2500CTD

I found this page http://home.comcast.net/~dieselford/brakes_rear.html that shows my brakes. Anyone else' look like these:

2500CTD

Ok got the rear cylinders on, didnt test drive it yet, gotta go to parts store. (is that bad if the test drive for one vehilce is to get parts for the other project ) The napa wheel cylinders are bigger. Turned the return spring upside down and it cleared the cylinder. My brakes resemble the one in the pic above, just dont have to remove axle to get to brakes. Other than that it was a simple swap. Hardest thing was having to tweak the brake lines a bit.

INJECTOR JACK

Have you road tested it yet?

2500CTD

sorry about the delay. Yip the brakes rock now! Wierd to describe but the truck swats down when I hit the brakes instead of doing a nose dive. The better half and I both had to relearn the brakes on the truck. I recommend it.