Hi All!

I recently had an unfortunate meeting with the back end of a Jeep and although it was a very low speed thing I did manage to crease my front bumper and bend it down a little on the bumper bolts. I know that some of you have changed out your front bumpers for something a little more functional or maybe pimper (is that a word?). Does any one out there have a spare front bumper, in good condition, for my 1999? If so, where are you and how much do you need for it?

Also, the brakes on this truck of mine are absolutely abysmal. I mean holy crap, the effen ABS doesn't even seem to do anything, even with the brake pedal practically mashed through the firewall. SHEESH!

Cheers all! Thanks for any and all help.

Mike

 

Does your 99 still have drum brakes in the rear? If so you can upgrade the rear cylinders to a chev 1 ton type and it will increase the stopping power in the rears. I did mine a few years ago and it did help a bit. I can't remeber the NAPA part number right now but i have one sitting on the shelf at home i will check it later.

 

Thanks for that tip - I had planned on doing the brake cylinder upgrade and will move it up on my priority list. If you could post the NAPA part number I would be most grateful. I will be towing 11,000 lbs this summer with our new RV so I need to do a lot of things to bring the truck up to full (sasfe) towing potential.

Cheers!

Mike

 

I just searched it out NAPA # 37337 for a gm 1 ton. It's about a 20 minute job for both sides.

 

Thanks very much for this information. I will go to our local NAPA tomorrow and pick up a couple of these puppies.

Cheers!

Mike

 

Mike.....I could lock my brakes up on my truck if I really want to...But I did a complete calbier/brakes swap also....Does your truck pull to any direction when you press on the brakes???You may have a master cylinder that is getting weak also...

 

Hello Diesel Dave2!

Nope, no pull in either direction. The brakes apply evenly as far as I can tell, I just don't get any feedback from the ABS system. Braking distances seem inordinately long and if I hit the brake pedal on some snow you can clearly see that the fronts have locked up and the rears have not. I'm thinking that the rears need to be set up and then hopefully with the new 1 ton wheel cylinders maybe I'll get some action from the rears.

I know how ABS is supposed to react when you get on it hard and ABS have saved my life more than once. When I get on the brakes in Miss Piggy I get no feedback at all. The brake pedal goes down as far as I expect it too and I push with all my feeble foot strength and I get no kickback from the pedal, no pulsations, nothing, nadda.

Something isn't quite right and I need to get it resolved before spring when the bride and I start hauling around in our brandy new 11,000lb RV. I'm going to get at the rear brakes this week and troubleshoot it as far as I can.

Cheers! and Merry Christmas!

Mike

 

On those old drum systems I could never seem to get them to stay adujusted. They are supposed to auto adjust but the darn things get rusted and quit adjusting.

In the end I just consigned myself to crawling under there every few months and adjusting them up manually.

 

I have a 95 dodge rear in the back of my 02 truck, I just have to drive backwards, slam on the brakes, to adjust the rear shoes. Seems to tighten up the rears decently. Even with no rear brakes pads, you should still have brakes? How much fluid is in the master cylinder? What color is the fluid? How stiff is the pedal? You have brakes still?

as for your bumper, check out cross canada auto parts
http://ecat.crosscanadaparts.com/php...DGPO&year=1999

When I bent my rear bumper up, I just found a rubber hammer and just beat it back into position. Its not perfect, but good enough for now.

I now LMC has the rear bumpers as well. Could try the wreckers for a decent bumper.

 

Hi Mike

Thank you for the link to CrossCanada Parts. Their list for a shiny new bumper is $248.00 which really insn't too bad. I may just go this route as long as the quality is good. I will research this further. The price is a lot lower than I thought it would be.

Cheers!

Mike

 

You should price out the fenders, doors and cowling hood as well. I thought that the pricing was better than expected for those parts. I bought the front black ABS plastic bumper cover. It wasn't an exact fit, but I fixed that part as they try to cover all the years. Looked decent but it made my chrome bumper look old and out of place.

As for the bumper, is it a chrome or primer rear bumper? I wonder how much chrome is on the bumper? Keep us posted and snap a few pics for us gearheads at home to drool on.

Other issue is the front head lights get weathered and get that yellowish color. Ya you can polish them up, but I forgot how much difference that there is going from stock lights to a sport light set-up.