Well i'm just about to go into full regret mode for buying this truck in novemver. Its something new every week for this thing.Its a 95 2500 silverado plow truck and since november i've replaced the alternator, washer pump motor, starter, and the water pump. Now for my next problem... Its snowing out again...i just get home and get out of my truck and smell something burning. I look under the hood..nothing. Get the flashlight out, look under the truck and see some smoke/steam coming form the rearend. I'm also hearing a sizzling sound.Upon further inspection It appears that the drivers side drum is sticking which caused the wheel to heat up which created the steam and the sizzle when water would drip on it. Soooo I guess I will be doing some work on the rear drums tomorrow. Has anyone experienced anything similiar to this on these trucks? Other than the parking brake, what is the most likely culprit for the sticking? Any other tips or things I should know? I'm hoping that after I replace all the usual wear items on this truck it will become a dependable work truck. edit: Btw its the 8 lug 'HD' version Thanks again for your help, scott
We have two of those series of truck..At best, the brakes suck...Dodge used the same front pads and if either of those trucks could get more than 15K out of a set of pads you were lucky... You may just have a frozen brake cable, with ours it was a little more complicated.... What we did, first and foremost is bypassed and removed the anti lock device. Remove the fuse from the dash, and bypass the anti lock device at the mid section of the truck with a 5" line, then bleed the brakes with DOT 5 fluid. I can tell you personally that anti lock brakes should never be installed on vehicles, and if someone needs them to enhance the performance of thie vehicle, they should learn how to drive better of keep the hell off the road. If anti lock brakes were such a great thing, they would make us have them on the race cars. During a typical brake job of the GM trucks of '88 through '98, you will replace 5 sets of pads in front, to one set of shoes at the rear because the system distributes pressure at 90% to front, 10% to rear, which, is dangerous when you pull trailers, as they can throw you into a jack knife due to the uneven distribution of brake friction. Been there, done that too.... What would happen our pulsator is it would continulally send impulses to the rear brakes, causing shoes to push against the drum and do what you described. If you feel uncomforatble with what I suggested, you could just try replacing the pulsator, but all you will be doing is prolonging the inevitable, which causes brake fade, failure, and sticking such as you are experiencing. I'm currently looking for a disc brake system to retro fit our trucks with, I love the trucks, the brakes suck...period! After '99, they revamped the brake system and placed a 100,000 mile warrantee on them due to all the complaints.
Thanks for the reply...I had another suggestion from another board to look underneath the truck for snow build up hanging on the brake cable....sure enough there was a VERY large build up of snow/ice that I kicked off, and now it seems to work fine. I wish all things were this easy to fix. I do agree with you about the sucky brakes. Brake fade is real bad on my truck, and it loves to lock up the front tires on even moderate braking. Did bypassing the abs improve braking quality at all? I wonder if the 99's system could be retro-fitted to fit our trucks? scott
As soon as the ABS was removed, we changed the ratio from 90% front, 10% rear to 60% front, 40% rear. Then we did one more thing. Ford has a lever action device which is similar to a ball valve in a sprinkler system. As weight goes onto the springs, the valve opens more allowing the full 60/40 ratio to work. When the truck is empty, it has an 80/20 ratio. That valve from Ford was $45.00, and we had to weld a braket on the rear end to make it work. I have thought about a 99 and newer retro fit as well...I need to find one in a junk yard when I have enough time and start to compare measurements. Another way I may go is with a six piston Bendix racing brake front and rear, but I am looking at $3,000.00 for the kit, and $125.00 for a set of pads... If I ever needed a salesman I would seek the person who sold GM and Dodge on that brake system, as they could sell an eskimo ice cubes!
i have a astro van i deliver papers in.stop and go for 3 hours a day. i had to put brakes on the rear d r u m. never did this before. after getting them on they worked well for about 2 hours then they started to stick. it sounded like someone was hitting it with a hammer. all it was they needed to be adjusted. i still have to adjust them often. yesterday matter of fact was brake day. fixed the problem in about 20 minutes. autozone.com has a wonderful web site to help.
