Help I am doing my drum brakes right now. Does the thicker shoe go to the front or rear of the truck? 96 2500 4x4 thanks for any input. I looked in my manual and it says primary and secondary shoe but does not show which way the front of the truck is.

 

 

Now I am confused I got two different answers. The picture show the thick one in the rear. notice the location of the e-brake adjuster.

 

The short shoe goes to the front(the one with the shortest amount of lining)

 

The ones toward the front are called the primary and have less lining. The one toward the rear are called the secondary and have more (longer and thicker lining). Thanks for all the help. now im going back to the garage.

 

What would the results be if the primary and secondary shoes were reversed ?

 

I made that mistake on my CJ-7, it made it nearly impossible to adujst the brakes.

 

The rotational force of the brake drum (when stopping the forward motion of the truck) causes more pressure on the rear shoe, thus the thicker, longer friction material (lining). To reverse the shoes would give you less stopping power and shorter lining life.

Another great example of this is the electric brakes on a trailer. The magnet simply grabs the drum, but the rotational force is what "jacks" the shoes around causing them to expand against the drum surface.

 

Im no brake mechanic but I just did mine two weekends ago and I put the thicker shoe on the front because the Dodge manual said to do so. Plus if you read around this site a bit it will tend to be that most people have put the thicker shoe in the front, from what I can tell. Infidel seems to be a pretty saavy guy when it comes to these trucks and he seems to think the front shoe wears faster, hence the thicker shoe on the front. Just thought I woud share. Good luck.

 

When I replaced my brake shoes, I installed the new shoes the way the old ones came off...the thick one to the front. Being the second owner and judging from the truck mileage, I think I removed the factory shoes. I have never been able to get the adjustment right as 9812v stated. One side or the other always will slide in loose gravel. Back off a few clicks on the adjuster, then the other side will side. One thing I noticed on the last adjustment while turning the wheels while jacked up is that the drums seemed out of round...they hit the brake shoe at the same place on every revolution on both sides of the truck.