Rear Brake help and front spring help dodge dealer is useless.

[67coronetman]

I have a 1st gen 1990 Dodge D250 Cummins ( Not a Dually ) ..
1. Can anyone tell me what came on the back shoe size and what size are the Brake wheel cylinders are on the rear...

2. front springs i was thinking of upgrading to the bigger D350 Springs. ( Front spring on there now are very weak) trucks bottoms out on dips and rubs i have new shocks all around.

Thanks for any help.

 

[sdeeter19555]

Rear shoes should be 12x2.5"? Wheel cylinders should be 7/8" bore?

I just went through this on my 90 w250...

 

[67coronetman]

Rear shoes should be 12x2.5"? Wheel cylinders should be 7/8" bore?

I just went through this on my 90 w250...

Thank you very much sir for your help I wasn't sure so I thought I'd ask those it would probably know more than me and I do appreciate it

 

[sdeeter19555]

I went to advance auto, they only list 12x2 and 12x3. I went for 12x3 thinking that would be the diesel and the 12x2 would be a gasser. The 12x3 are for a w350 and are 1-1/8" bore and bolt right in...supposedly this is the upgrade.

 

[EDankievitch]

Way back when I had my 89 I ran into this same issue. I had the dealer service the brakes once and they failed early. Sooner than the normal 80k miles I normally would get out of the shoes. When I took I apart I found that they used the. Smaller shoes and wheel cylinders. Had to have the drums cut but it was night an day with the BBC right parts back in her. I miss that truck. Drove her for way over 500k miles in the 11 years I owned her. She truly was the best truck I’ve ever had.

 

[67coronetman]

I went to advance auto, they only list 12x2 and 12x3. I went for 12x3 thinking that would be the diesel and the 12x2 would be a gasser. The 12x3 are for a w350 and are 1-1/8" bore and bolt right in...supposedly this is the upgrade.

So you don't have to buy any other drums or anything else you just got the new shoes and wheel cylinders and everything both right in no problem

 

[EDankievitch]

In my trucks case it had the 3” wide drums. The dealer had replaced the shoes and wheel cylinders with the wrong 12”x2” . The right parts bolted right in. I just had to get the drums cut because the way they got worn with the wrong shoes

 

[Capt. Methane]

Auto Zone had the 2.5 inch rear shoes and 7/8'th inch cylinders. The springs that held everything together were weak also and they got replaced with a set of springs that was actually made in the US from NAPA! You can get at least Western Hemisphere made seals and bearings from Torque King in Montana and most of their pieces are US made.

The drums will work with any of the 2 through 3 inch shoes but if you change sizes you absolutely have to have the drums turned which may take them out of limits...

I have been told that Dodge in their infinite wisdom used the same front springs on the Diesels that they did on the gassers which makes the front end hopelessly under-sprung from the outset and prone to premature spring failure.

I just replaced the springs all the way around on my 92 W-250 with custom springs from Alcan but I don't believe they do coil springs for the front of your truck but if yours was used much the rear springs are likely to be worn out also and Alcan can help you with that (give them good measurements and be honest about what your most critical load will be-the tongue weight and gross weight of a trailer and whatever you will have in the bed for instance) and would most likely be able to point you to someone who can build you front springs that will hold up.

https://alcanspring.com/products.htm

It was not cheap and it was time consuming as several of the bolts had to be cut out with a sawzall and or angle grinder-half way through the project I really wondered what the hell I had been thinking...up until the point that I hooked the trailer up and had towed it a couple of hundred miles by which time I was a true believer!

It is still a W-250 with the best of 1960's technology in the suspension (not a new Lincoln Navigator for instance) but those new custom springs made an unbelievable difference in the character of the truck-towing with it is actually a pleasure now.