Recommendations on coils, brake pads and rotors?

[HonkinDiesel]

Howdy ya'll;



It's been awhile since I been in the TDR zone. I missed alot on the small (big) talk about what you are all doing with your rigs. Sorry I been hunkered down with the new addition to the family. Not time for much else.





Anyway, I have to service my saging front end on my D250 and thinking about going with the Moog Coils SD #7226S and the Gas Magnum Load leveler shocks. Would anyone disagree with that one or is there something better?



I'm also changing out my front rotors and pads, so I got to thinking what do you folks recommend for rotors and pads?

I last installed Raybestos rotors and pads 2 years ago and the rotors warped after 6 months (after some #$% cut me off and I had to lock em up, Maybe I should add on a Moose catcher and not worry about locking my brakes ).

 

[1stgen4evr]

brake parts

A good quality part of any brand will do you ok (I use mid grade NAPA brake parts) but I have a couple of things that I have experienced that may be of interest with regard to the front brakes.



The pads are rivited and (at a point) will look to be ok when in fact, if you have to make a really hard stop, you can shuck the pads off and immediate rotor ruin will happen. This has happend to me a couple of time so now I replace them with a bit more life left in them. This may not apply to you as I often have a trailer load that I am stoping which is pretty heavy.



With regard to warped front rotors, you may not be getting much out of your rear brakes. I have experienced similar trouble on two of my trucks (the two I run the most) and I recently did away with the abs crap on the back over the axle. I have better brakes than ever and am not overworking the fronts. A couple of dollar brass fittings to connect the lines, bypassing the valve and that is all. I have read post about bleeding the lines but I could never get it done, nor could the dealer to the tune of 1800 dollars (previous owner). I may not know how, but whatever, I have the best brakes ever.



James

 

[HonkinDiesel]

James;

That must have left a lump in your throat when those pads flew off. Yikes!



I don't think my rear brakes get used much at all. My last set lasted more than 6 years and I just had them done a couple years ago. My fronts tend to be used the most, I guess for obvious reasons.



Since you bypassed the ABS, how do you find braking even under slippery conditions?

Do you have any pic's or diagrams of this modification? It sounds like a pretty straight forward job.



Thanks for your insights



Pete

 

[1stgen4evr]

lump in my throat

No. What it did was grind the rivits into the rotors. The metal pad backing piece doesn't fall out. You don't loose braking, you just ruin the rotors immediately.



How do I find braking under slippery conditions? Well I keep a bunch of stuff on my truck so it is carrying enough load that there is not a slippery problem. I have said before that if you have trouble driving a vehicle without ABS, maybe you shouldn't be driving at all. Now I don't want you to take that in a mean spirited way. I realize that a lot of young drivers are using the Dodge/Cummins and perhaps they need ABS. I don't. I have been driving something with brakes (my tricycle didn't have brakes) since about 1947 and unless I have a stroke and forget everything, I know when to mash the brakes and how hard to mash as well. If I deem it neccessary, I have the option of locking it down. With ABS, you don't. Do a search on the ABS problems and you will see some scary information. By the way, my Mercedes has ABS and it is a functional system. I have not done anything to it.



The elimination of the unit on the frame is ultra simple. I got two brass fittings, one that fits the large line and another that fits the small line, one with male threads the other with female threads and simply connected the two line together. I will see if I can get the part number for the fittings. The wife has usurped the camera and I don't have access to it. But yes it is ultra simple.





When you get full function on the rear brakes, you will get more rapid wear there and you will have to service those more often. What size wheel cylinders do you have on the rear? Some owners have gone to a larger cylinder for increased stopping. Also, do you have the wide shoes? Tinkering with the cylinder size is not for a novice. You need to consider the load you carry and if it is always more than an empty truck, you can go a size bigger with good result.



James

 

[TKingsbury]

I just thought I'd chime in here on the ABS deal. I plan to chuck my ABS valve. My ABS operation is very hard to predict. On dry pavement it will activate, but I've had it not activate on wet pavement when the rears were skidding for a full truck length. The system on these trucks is a joke. Think about when they made it, 15+ years ago. Now think about the highly sofisticated computers of the day :-laf. Modern ABS works ok, but our old junk is so slow, it causes highly unpredictable bahavior. New vehicles have very fast processor speed, and when the ABS is activated it feels like a foot massage. On our trucks it locks and unlocks every second or two, what a joke. Think about driving into a wet corner and applying the brakes, then, having the rear brakes lock and then disappear completely for a couple of seconds and repeat, very scary. Ok, I'll get off of my soapbox and return to normal now.

Travis. .

 

[tugboatphil]

I have been driving something with brakes (my tricycle didn't have brakes) since about 1947

1947!?!?



James! Did they really have tricycles back then?? Were those the kind with the chiseled stone wheels like on the Flintstones?? :-laf :-laf

 

[HonkinDiesel]

Regarding the ABS deal, I noticed too over the 10 years I owned this truck, that the ABS was very unpredictable and it almost sent me out of control one winter. This is the first vehicle I ever owned with ABS and didn't think much of it and just put up with it (I guess like most of us). It sounds like many of you have bypassed that sucker. The thought had crossed my mind in the past and the more we talk about it, I think I might just bypass mine too!



I'll take a look back there to see what is involved when I go under the truck to replace my front end coils and shocks this weekend.



Pete

 

[HonkinDiesel]

Well I got it done! Great call on the MOOG Coil SD's and Monroe gas mag shock combo. I got almost a 3" lift on the front end. Now she sits pretty level, and the ride is much smoother and better handling.



This was a heck of job. Just as a note anyone doing this, I could not remove either upper or lower ball joints as the manual suggested, so ended up undoing the lower rear arm pivot and carefully (emphasis carefully) lowering it with a hydraulic jack.

Putting in the new SD coil almost lifted the whole front end. It took both the jack to lift it and a 4 ton hydraulic ram to line it up again.



Well worth the pain of doing this though!

Thanks to you guys for your input and valuable info. I probably wouldn't have done it without you.