"M.B." <mailinglists@moparhowto.com> wrote:
> Depends on what year truck you have. When they went to the 12" brakes
> in what, 2003? I think that was about as big as you could get.
> I personally would rather convert to discs on the rear as my drums are
> my limiting factor. They lock up long before the fronts do and the ABS
> kicks in hard. I think my drums need replacing here pretty soon though.
If your rear end is locking up with drums, I should think that
swapping to discs which will grab even harder would exacerbate the
problem. Plus, switching a vehicle from drums to discs is generally
difficult and/or expensive and not worth the time or the money, IMHO.
I like rear discs from a maintenance standpoint and thus would spec
them on a new vehicle, but to swap to them from drums is just not
worth the effort. Perhaps in a road racing vehicle with a better
weight bias a case could be made, but your rear brakes are only doing
something like 20% of the braking, so increasing the braking power in
the rear doesn't do a whole lot for you. If better stops are the
goal, any improvement to the front brakes is 4 times as effective as
that same improvement made to the rear brakes.
Regarding your specific problem of the rears locking up, I suspect
you can eliminate that with some adjustment. It may be the pads are
too close to the drum and are engaging too early/hard. I don't know
if the Dak has an adjustable front/rear bias valve, but if it does (or
one were added) that could be another way to go.
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars |
`-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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