Any HD or severe duty shoes will work, just stay away from ther discount brands.
I use Bendix Severe duty shoes and pads. Hawk are good, Napa ok also. Napa carries 4 grades, you want the most expensive!

 

Thanks, I was leaning toward the Napa "middle of the road" ones. I figure I'm going to replace the calipers too. I see that you can get a little price break if you get the calipers with pads in them as oppsed to buying each seperate.

 

I did this upgrade on the 96 now I can't keep them from locking up BAD
Not a little but alot.
Fronts are good with new calipers...
Ideas?

KO

 

Do you have rear ABS? Sounds like it's not working properly if you have it. Not much else I can think of, though..

 

I did the mod a week ago and I really like it.

 

NO you don't want the middle of the road car car brakes, you want the severe duty HD truck brakes!

 

BEST INVESTMENT EVER!!!!!!!!!!
I went to get my truck inspected and they failed me for shoes being thin and a slight seep in one rear cylinder. They told me for only 300 plus tax they could fix it.
So off to NAPA with this part # I went. Total cost for shoes, a quart of fluid to flush the system and two spanky new GM cylinders ($9.90 each) 50 bucks!
Now it stops like I mean it.

 

I am not sure what you mean by car brakes, when you ask for brakes for a 2500, 3500 you should get truck brakes. I may have this wrong but I think the severe duty pads are harder, which may be good but will wear the roters faster. I would rather change the pads a couple of times than the roters once.

Floyd

 

Yes there are different compounds for the lining and the metallic and ceramic ones are supposed to be less prone to heat fade.
Of the organics you can get bonded or riveted types. The bonded give you marginally more contact surface and should give better braking but I've also read that the rivet holes give a place for the lining dust to gather while braking instead of riding the rest of the pad surface and sort of lubricating it......but I doubt that pad dust is that slippery or that the little less surface taken by rivet heads makes any difference on a DD.
If your machine is hooked up to sensors on a controlled environment you could tell a difference, if not your buying the advertising snob hype.

I agree with ^ I use basic pads, change them as needed and only lightly dress the drums / rotors.

 

This is great info and will try it this weekend. But someone told me to use DOT (?) brake fluid because it is better than DOT 3. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

 

My understanding is Dot 5 (?) is superior but that you have to purge every last drop of Dot 3 out as the two are incompatible.
For that reason I stick to Dot 3.

 

It looks like DOT 3/4 is best for our trucks:
http://www.xs11.com/tips/maintenance/maint1.shtml
I need to replace the fluid in my truck but need to find that little vacuum pump for that.

 

I did a fluid flush on mine when I changed over to the GM wheel cyl. I just sucked the fluid out of the master cyl. then pored in the fresh fluid. Gravity bled the brakes using a clear hose, when I got clear fluid in the hose I moved to the next wheel. Just need to keep an eye on the M.C. to keep it full.

Floyd

 

Just installed them and the rears lock up under semi-hard braking. (I now know the ABS turns works) This is on dry pavement. I'll be taking them off before winter.

The rears are doing more of the stopping than they should. I'm sure it feels "different", but I'm not sure it's "better". I'm glad they are cheap and easy to do and undo.



Also, when I ordered them from NAPA, one was made in Italy and the other China. They were visually different on the outside, so I took one back and swap it so they would match. Rather be safe than sorry. I don't like NAPA because you don't know who makes thier stuff (and obvioulsy is varies even with the same part number).

 

My bet is if you take the time to get used to the better braking you'll leave them on.
Many people's first reaction is that the rears lock up too easy.