M1008 Front Brake Upgrades? Master Cylinder?

[Efituned]

Are there any upgrades for the front brakes? Maybe upgrading the master cylinder to help the whole system? I installed rear disk brakes, which helped a lot, a couple years ago. I had about two yards of red clay in the bed of the truck and it had a hard time stopping. I have towed a few heavily loaded trailers and even with strong electric brakes the truck had a difficult time stopping. Any ideas?

 

[Westech]

Good heavy duty pads and a good rotor. Using the cheap pads and shoes will get you no place. Stopping power with the cheap stuff can be up to 30% less then heavy duty friction material.

 

[steve6x6x6]

What kind of upgrade?

 

[Westech]

Cucv not deuce

 

[Drock]

I've bin looking into this myself. There's ah couple solutions I've found (#1) there are ah few companies on Ebay and on the web that will cross drill, slot, and zinc coat ANY rotors you order. It takes ah couple weeks for them to make and send them to you. I have them on 2 vehicles and they vastly improved the stopping power as well as tripled the life of the pads. (#2) EBC brake pads, which I have not tried but from what I've read do work well, but don't last long, eat up rotors, and are expensive..

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

I had about two yards of red clay in the bed of the truck and it had a hard time stopping.

Might have something to do with being waaaay overloaded. Maybe. A yard of wet clay is about 2700 pounds.

I have towed a few heavily loaded trailers and even with strong electric brakes the truck had a difficult time stopping. Any ideas?

Stay a little closer to the design limits, maybe?

 

[Efituned]

I have good quality pads and rotors. The truck didn't have a problem handling the weight in acceleration or speed. I was hoping there was an easy swap of brake calipers and/or master cylinder.

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

I can pull that weight in my Jeep Cherokee, too.

Doesn't mean it's a good idea.

 

[sandcobra164]

In your signature, you say you have a 383 so I'm assuming a stroker 350 with a 400 crank. Mine is bone stock with the hydroboost setup and will lock up all 4 whether loaded nearly as heavy as you or unloaded without too much pedal effort. How much vacuum is the truck pulling at idle and how large of a cam is in that motor if I've guessed what you have in it. A 383 with a fairly warmed up cam and the low gears in these trucks will probably pull a heavy load very well but it might not make enough vacuum at idle to make the vacuum powered brake booster operate the brakes very well. You do have a vacuum operated brake booster? I'm sure you do but if not, that's your first step to take and it should be readily available as alot of these trucks for the civilian market were gas powered.

 

[richingalveston]

Not sure why you would change to a vacuum booster from hydroboost?
diesel or gas can use the hydroboost the same as long as the pulley and pump sizes do not change between motors.
If you changed the motor but still have hydro pump, your brakes should work fine.

You mention your problem is when heavily loaded. The 1008 has a proportioning valve to put more brake to the back tires when loaded. Your problem may just be in the valve and linkage. You should check this first.
Adding more brake to the front will only cause lock up problems. Your fronts will lock up and the rears wont. When loaded you need all four stopping with much more in the rear than front.

Check to make sure your proportioning valve is working properly and that your rear drums are adjusted correctly. I would spend the money and upgrade the rears to disk and upgrade the master cylinder to the one with the larger rear reservoir. Instead of upgrading the front as long as it works fine when not loaded.
You need the front and rears to lock up at about the same time or the rears locking before the front to handle a load properly and maintain steering when under heavy braking. If the rears lock first, yes it increases the chance for a jack knifed trailer. That is ultimately better than no steering in a heavy braking situation.

Simply putting more stopping power in the front will greatly increase your chances of an accident since these old trucks do not have antilock brakes.

you may want to check the trailer brakes also, they should be able to stop the load regardless of the truck.

 

[richingalveston]

Sorry saw you already did the rear brake conversion. If you did not change the master cylinder this could be part of the problem with your rears.

I think the problem you are having is in the proportioning valve and possibly not having the needed capacity in the master cylinder to operate the larger calipers. (larger than the slave cylinder on drum brakes)