lifted 4x4's What are you doing for braking power

[87scottsdale]

Hello all,

I have an 87 scottsdale 4" lift with some 35's

Front disc and rear drum. I want to increase braking power. I am not sure what others have done to improve braking performance. Other than maybe a bigger master cylinder or bigger brakes.

I have 15" M/T classic II's so whatever is suggested must clear. I have thought of adding stainless lines to help with the added pressure/line expansion,but this will only do so much..

Please fill me in!!

[winky]

Flush your lines and use new fluid. I've seen brake lines get restricted before. My 77 with 6" lift and 37s would lock up just fine with my stock setup. Might also look into hydro boost off a HD truck I think the military cuvc had it too. Like you mentioned line expansion can cause problems so try having some one press brakes and just check them over well.

[Displaced_Txn]

flush the system replace the dot3 with dot4. Have heard of some converting to a hydroboost set up on some trucks before also.

[Irish_Alley]

i would steer away from hydro. if you bust a line you lose steering and brakes. theres a post on here about someone who did the conversion but then swapped back due to more problems than its worth

[87scottsdale]

Ok I have heard of hydroboost,but never thought about a conversion. So general consensus is a brake system flush. I do not suffer from spongy pedal feel or anything as much as standing on the pedal to feel a quick grab and then the weight and force of the tires taking things a bit further than I feel is needed.

I will get some new fluid here soon and gravity bleed a couple bottles of dot4 though it and see if that does anything. I also should just go ahead and put new rubber lines in the front. Probably just buy the braided stainless units and know they never need replaced.

Is there a bigger master cylinder swap out there or is it basically an all or nothing deal? Booster and master?

[Displaced_Txn]

could also do rear disc swap and put some quality pads and rotors on it. I run slotted and dimpled rotors on my 4x4 superduty with 35s and made a big difference over the stock pads and rotors. Scince you never really have the glazing effect going on with the pads and rotors.

[87scottsdale]

could also do rear disc swap and put some quality pads and rotors on it. I run slotted and dimpled rotors on my 4x4 superduty with 35s and made a big difference over the stock pads and rotors. Scince you never really have the glazing effect going on with the pads and rotors.

Any particular place to look for some nice rotors? Are they brembo's or anything special. I have thought about a rear disc swap. I am having trouble finding 6 lug conversion information.

Also don't want to spend $500+ for a kit.

[Displaced_Txn]

rotors im partial to brakeperformance.com as their warranty also covers warpage(sp). Plus you can get them in black zinc coated which ive always run and never had a single problem with them, never warped a rotor even hauling huge loads  and having to slam on the brakes because of other idiot drivers.   and they stand behind their products 100 percent had some come in with a small defect emailed them pictures and had two new rotors the next day.

one of the few pics i have of them installed.

[87scottsdale]

rotors im partial to brakeperformance.com as their warranty also covers warpage(sp). Plus you can get them in black zinc coated which ive always run and never had a single problem with them, never warped a rotor even hauling huge loads  and having to slam on the brakes because of other idiot drivers.   and they stand behind their products 100 percent had some come in with a small defect emailed them pictures and had two new rotors the next day.

one of the few pics i have of them installed.

They have some really good deals on rotors. I might order some of those up when I go to flush my brakes out. Get some of the slotted rotors and some good semi metallic pads.

[Displaced_Txn]

yeah, plus they do sales all the time, have ran them on all 3 of my superdutys and never had a complaint from them yet.

[Captkaos]

I would get your existing brake system in working order before I started changing stuff.  If you are unable to lock up the brakes I would suspect an issue that would need to be fixed.

[87scottsdale]

I would get your existing brake system in working order before I started changing stuff.  If you are unable to lock up the brakes I would suspect an issue that would need to be fixed.

Oh for sure. My brakes are still in pretty good shape as far as rotors/pads and drums/shoes.

The guy drove the truck for a month or so with no brakes. Using curbs and stuff to stop it. So once he threw the new master on he went ahead and threw new pads/rotors  and some new shoes.

I have already bled all 4 corners and get no air. I am wondering how possible it is that the wrong master cylinder was used? Do they measure these by sizing?  IE: 13/16,7/8 etc?

[Displaced_Txn]

Could have been a wrong master cylinder see if there is any numbers on it and check auto parts stores on line for the cross reference.  Are you loosing any brake fluid at all out of the master cylinder?  Have you replaced the brake lines at all scince owning the truck also? Becasue the lines can fatigue over time and break down from the inside and cause small flaps of rubber to either hinder the passages of fluid flow to the calipers and wheel cylinders and also to return to the master cylinder.

When you bleed the brakes which method did you use to do so?

[87scottsdale]

Could have been a wrong master cylinder see if there is any numbers on it and check auto parts stores on line for the cross reference.  Are you loosing any brake fluid at all out of the master cylinder?  Have you replaced the brake lines at all scince owning the truck also? Becasue the lines can fatigue over time and break down from the inside and cause small flaps of rubber to either hinder the passages of fluid flow to the calipers and wheel cylinders and also to return to the master cylinder.

When you bleed the brakes which method did you use to do so?

Lines looked fairly new as well. About the only thing previous owner did right. I use the buddy system. One person pumps while the other one bleeds.

I need to head over to my brothers this weekend and re bleed everything out and see whats up. Could be the guy before didn't bench bleed the master or something stupid. I don't have a rock hard pedal due to the booster  but I can hit the brakes and I get not quite a half pedal of air noise and then the pedal starts grabbing about 1/2 way down.. I just need to re bleed with some new fluid.

[4x4x4x]

we are running 33 1250r15's on our truck.  have slotted front disks and SS rear disk brake conversion.  system brakes much better that stock, and since we live in the rainy PNW the disks work better in the rain.