Caliper upgrade

[shady]

Eh. I love that idea, but at $15 ea vs 300, the stocks do fine for me.

that's what I mean though... aint no way in h3ll, id buy the wilwoods that's why I was wondering about stocks with dual pistons that will bolt into ours but belong in something else.... then they would be $20-$80 instead of $300... might be hard to find a cross reference, or measurement spec sheet for a caliper manufacturer though

 

[dhcomp]

that's what I mean though... aint no way in h3ll, id buy the wilwoods that's why I was wondering about stocks with dual pistons that will bolt into ours but belong in something else.... then they would be $20-$80 instead of $300... might be hard to find a cross reference, or measurement spec sheet for a caliper manufacturer though

The tough thing about that is the bracket, and slide design.

It would have to be a mounting bracket and caliper swap....and really, it will be more effort than its worth.

Nothing in our vintage had better brakes, or we'd be running them already.

I say go new calipers, high end pads, rotors if needed, wheel cylinders, rear pads, hardware kits front/rear, bleed the brakes well, spend HRS getting your rear drums just right, and run with it! After bleed, every pedal feel issue i've ever had is rear drum adjustment related. I f*cking hate adjusting the drums, but when they are right....they work great.

 

[shady]

I meant a bolt on caliper that didn't need any bracket swaps or anything.... im sure one probably exists in stock form but finding it would be a bee atch most likely.... ill just end up doing like your saying (same thing im doing to my kids blazer right now) but it would be nice to find if there is such a thing...

 

[dremu]

Upgraded calipers would be sweet.

That being said, most people look to upgrade their stock systems cause they aren't setup right, they are old and messed up, not properly maintained, etc.

I've been through the whole braking system in my truck, and i'm happy with the results.

Get NEW stock calipers, lube the slides with high temp silicon based grease, and regrease ever other other oil change, and every time you have the front wheels off.

Keep your rears properly adjusted. This makes the biggest difference.

With stock front calipers, and 14FF rear drums on my burb, i've never really had the desire for stronger brakes.

Bing bing bing! QFT.

I converted my dually to disc, had all manner of hassles and trouble and never got the balance right.

I put it all back to stock, new parts, adjusted properly, and what do you know, that thing would stop on a dime and give change. On a dusty road it would even lock up all six and slide.

I think folks are too quick to modify their brakes by randomly throwing parts at the truck, without (1) verifying that the existing components are in good shape and (2) understanding the interactions between the various parts of the system.

On my K5 I actually have a set of those Wilwoods, the larger pistons up front and the smaller ones in back, and still gotta tune the balance with a proportioning valve. I also don't think that the stock master/booster can provide enough force to them, so I'm gonna convert to hydroboost, and then I gotta sort out what sort of master is best suited to these calipers.

-- A

 

[4X4HIGH]

The 1 ton Burb calipers are a bolt on for the half and 3/4 ton trucks and feature a slightly larger piston, those may be worth a look for an upgrade.

Never heard of a 1 ton burb. Pretty sure burbs were only offered in 1/2 and 3/4 ton.

 

[Greg Ducato]

Sure they built one ton Suburbans, I used one to haul my Unicorns around in. You are correct, meant 3500 series SRW, thanks for pointing that out!

 

[CGT80]

My pickup is a 79 C20 camper special with a factory 14bff. JB7 brake system. The rear drums worked well, if you could keep them adjusted. I messed with them over and over, but could never keep them just right. I decided to go to disc brakes. I went to bleed the rear calipers and didn't have any fluid volume. Ends up the master was bad. I ran the cadilac calipers. They stopped great, if the parking brake adjustment was just right. There were as hard to get right as the drum brakes.

I finally went to the front rotors from a 4x4 k20. Now it is great. I would rather have good hydraulic brakes and no e brake (which I could add) than have crappy service brakes and a crappy e brake that could never hold the truck while it was empty.

I run powerslot cryo rotors and hawk hps pads. I average 60k miles or more for a set of pads.

My master is the stock one for the jb7 C20 and the proportioning valve is from the disc brake kit I bought (over priced, but convenient).

The brakes on my K5, with a 10 bolt rear and stock braking parts, are not too great. My tires are 35" maxxis mudders. I would love to go to disc/ 3/4 ton brakes, but I don't drive it nearly as much as my pickup, so it isn't in the budget so far. The oversize tires and wheels really kill the performance. The parts are Napa shoes, and probably unknown, stock discs, drums, and pads. It will stop hard when I get on it, but it takes a lot of force from the driver and it really nose dives (6" lift).

My pickup has single piston calipers and I used the same stock hoses on the rear, that I have on the front. I can lock up the tires fairly easy. I am pretty good at really getting on them hard, when needed, but not quite reaching the lockup point. If they do lockup, I seem to be able to back off the pressure pretty quickly to avoid skidding. I wouldn't consider super expensive calipers when stock parts can be used to get this performance. I have a lot of aftermarket (read, expensive) parts on my truck and it can be a pain to get parts for them. I usually have warning to buy rotors or pads ahead of time, and the starter, dizzy, alternator, and water pump are not cheap off the shelf parts that I want to just exchange out. I have to order parts for them or send them out. It can be a pain finding the line between performance and availability and cost.

 

[owenst7]

For the cost of some of these aftermarket calipers, you could put a front axle in with a 4500 lb GAWR