Horrible brakes on these 2nd gen dodge diesels

[The motor guy]

Single piston front calipers, rear drums. I think thats just the way it is on these older trucks. Had the rear drums adjusted and while its better, you sure aren't making no panic stops, so with a trailer which also has brakes, you have to go like 10mph below the speed limit to keep someone from getting too close in front of you in case they end up stopping fast at a light. Now the truck without a trailer the brakes are fine. Now with my 3rd gen dodge with 4 wheel disc brakes and dual piston calipers, its like night and day.

 

[skyactiv]

What size tires do you have?

 

[supton]

I'm not sure I'm following. When pulling a trailer, braking distances are longer. And while I'm not sure what years a 2nd gen Dodge is, it probably is old and apt to be outdone by something much newer.

Are you looking for recommendations on how to make better? or just commenting?

Does this have ABS? If not, are you getting lockup?

 

[wwillson]

Single piston front calipers, rear drums. I think thats just the way it is on these older trucks.

We pulled heavy livestock trailers over 750k miles with the gen 2 trucks. You drive it and get used to it, but yeah the brakes aren't fantastic.

 

[The motor guy]

What size tires do you have?

16" rims. Can't remember the aspect ratio and diameter etc

 

[Sumboodie]

OBS Fords of the era weren't any better.
The Chevs for whatever reason had great brakes. Like teeth in steering wheel great.

I've owned quite a few of the 3.

 

[nthach]

OBS Fords of the era weren't any better.
The Chevs for whatever reason had great brakes. Like teeth in steering wheel great.

I've owned quite a few of the 3.

I’ve read the 10” drums on the 1500 GMT400 trucks weren’t great. The 11” brakes were better.

 

[Sumboodie]

I’ve read the 10” drums on the 1500 GMT400 trucks weren’t great. The 11” brakes were better.

I should have specified in the 3/4 and 1 ton trucks. I've never owned a 1/2 ton.

 

[skyactiv]

16" rims. Can't remember the aspect ratio and diameter etc

Tires matter somewhat. A wider tire will stop a vehicle in a shorter distance than a narrower one; assuming if one was using the same tire model in different widths but both being on a wheel of nominal size. Todays trucks have wider tires along with better brakes which adds up.

 

[cptbarkey]

When was the last time you changed your brake fluid?

 

[DemoFly]

They are indeed bad. Undersized, too. True for all Dodge trucks, vans and Jeeps of the era. Love the cummins, hate the truck.

 

[The motor guy]

OBS Fords of the era weren't any better.
The Chevs for whatever reason had great brakes. Like teeth in steering wheel great.

I've owned quite a few of the 3.

Ive heard you can put GM wheel cylinders on the dodges and they help a good bit more.

 

[ripcord]

Ive heard you can put GM wheel cylinders on the dodges and they help a good bit more.

I checked on rockauto and saw that a mid nineties dodge 3/4 with the heavy duty 3.5" wide drums uses the same larger 1 1/16" cylinder as the mid nineties Chevy C2500 rear drums. The normal duty Dodge rear brakes take 15/16" cylinders.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=964636&cc=1377569&pt=1952&jsn=669

 

[eljefino]

16" rims. Can't remember the aspect ratio and diameter etc

If they're oversized, that's more leverage working against the meager brakes.

 

[56Cummins]

I know a guy that recomends PowerStop rotors and pads. Reported it was a noticeable upgrade and well worth it on the old Dodges.

3rd gen brakes are a massive improvement. Went from a 12.6" rotor to 14" on the front. A lot more pad as well.

 

[ripcord]

Tires are the most important component of stopping power. A lot of people mistakenly equate low required pedal pressure with higher stopping power. That's not necessarily the case. Most cars can lock the tires up at normal freeway speeds, no matter the size of the brake components. The main thing that bigger disks and drums give you is greater headroom before the brakes are overheated and sometimes bigger brakes provide greater ease of brake pedal modulation.

Diesel engines don't make vacuum the way gas rigs do, so I wonder if the vacuum pump on those 2nd Gen Dodge Cummins are a little lacking, or if the stock brake booster is not optimized for the application?

 

[D60]

I'm doing a '97 3500 Ram 4x4 right now. The RH piston was seized and metal on metal while the left still had 6mm.

Here's old pads vs new:

Left at 6mm (but of course replacing those pads, too

These are all GMT400 brakes, with the same GVWR breaks of 7500 and 8800 in the listings. The part numbers are identical for rotors, pads and calipers (er, I think, on calipers)

Thru '99 also got the minor PITA captive rotors. In '00 they went to the now-standard slide-on rotors. I know old school live axles and TTB were like this, but it's easier without having to drag a unit bearing out of the knuckle with the rotor. Lining it back up with the backing plate (which I reco discarding always) and factory shim is even more fun.

Also, despite most O'Reillys having fancy new brake lathes, they don't have an arbor to turn those, which I thought is stoopid. There's still about 8 million GMT400s and 2nd Gen Rams in my corner of the state.

 

[clinebarger]

Tires are the most important component of stopping power. A lot of people mistakenly equate low required pedal pressure with higher stopping power. That's not necessarily the case. Most cars can lock the tires up at normal freeway speeds, no matter the size of the brake components. The main thing that bigger disks and drums give you is greater headroom before the brakes are overheated and sometimes bigger brakes provide greater ease of brake pedal modulation.

Diesel engines don't make vacuum the way gas rigs do, so I wonder if the vacuum pump on those 2nd Gen Dodge Cummins are a little lacking, or if the stock brake booster is not optimized for the application?

I've had 2 '97 Ram Cummins RWAL trucks & the front brakes could not lock the front wheels on dry pavement with good tires. I believe Ram got HydroBoost in '96??

 

[D60]

This '97 3500 4x4 on my lift is hydroboost. Dunno when it started.

My wife says her face cream is Hydroboost. You're welcome . Maybe some Neutrogena face cream on the rotors would improve performance????