EGR Brake lines

[dan_gilson]

1st - They were worth the wait.



I started this process back in November 2001. I was told they were back ordered in December and I got them about 2 weeks ago (in the 1st week of April 2002). Throughout that time I would call Glenn every couple of weeks.



There was a minor problem in that Dodge changed the connector on the left side and did not tell anyone. It was quickly taken care of. We swapped the hoses in the mail.



With the original hoses my pedal was down about 1/2 way to the floor before I got any stopping. Now it goes down less than an inch.



The pedal feel is much much better. Did I say lots! You push it down to where it stops and you are ON the brakes. If you lean on it just a little more you are into ABS. It is much nicer to control.



I think it has improved my front to back balence a little. Before I was mainly braking just on the rear axle. I am unloaded most of the time and at ~30K I had to replace rear shoes. The front pads have little wear. I seem to get a bunch more from the front now. I kind of expected this in that there are those long rubber hoses up front to expand before that piston does.



I plan on changing out rest of the components they wear out with EGR parts.

 

[sam peterson]

Dan--I'm curious as to why you have so much rear brake & most others don't----Sam

 

[dan_gilson]

I was trying to figure out the same thing. I did some research in DC repair manual and found that the front brakes have a hold off valve. I am probably not using the correct terms here. I found this a couple of weeks ago. Basically the valve waits until significant braking pressure is introduced before allowing the front brakes to begin to operate.



My driving style is to try to use the brakes as little as possible and I try to maintain a very soft foot.



The 2nd thing that I can think of is: I have had the problem where the rear axle did not seem to be braking much. This was because I had let go out of adjustment. I back up into a uphill driveway and just need to tap the brakes to stop. The self adjusters did not enough time to do their job. I went through a set of rear shoes at 30K because of this. When out of adjustment the shoe tens to wear quickly but only in small areas. Once the shoes get this way the only way to correct this uneven wear is to either regrind the friction material on the shoe to where it is even or buy new shoes.



When I had replaced the shoes at 30K there was only a very small portion of the show that was still making contact with the drum. This greatly decreased the friction area (AKA there was a lot less braking force that the rear could actually do at that time).



NOW, I do a backup with brakes in my parking lot at work on Mondays. I go through a couple of stops. I have pulled the drums and the shoes look good with even wear over the length of the shoe. I have ~35K miles on this set of shoes. This may be another reason why I have a lot more from the rear and why others do not.



It is really easy to verify whether the shoe has abnormal wear. All you need to do is jack up the rear, pull the drums and make sure that the pad thickness is the same through the length of the shoe. If it is not you will have less braking from the rear.