Gm Semi float 14 bolt, trash or rebuild?

Why do you want rear discs? They require more assist, so simply bolting them in place of drums is actually a downgrade in braking performance.

Supercharged111 said:

Why do you want rear discs? They require more assist, so simply bolting them in place of drums is actually a downgrade in braking performance.

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1) cuts almoast 100lbs off the rear axle.

2) cheaper to maintain

3) aesthetically better looking

4) cost of disc brake kit calipers and rotors is cheaper than new drums pads and hardware. Atleast the parts I found looking around.

5) gives me room to grow with the performance mods i want to do in the future.

That's just my opinion.

Ok so here is another thing to think about. If you gravel travel a lot with rear disc the rocks always get up in there and eat the hell out of both pads and rotors. That's not an issue with drums therefore they last longer.

I threw a junkyard rear end in the truck back in 2012 with God knows how many miles on the shoes/drums and they're still going strong. You're greatly exaggerating the difference that discs make and completely ignoring the bias requirement on something you'll never drive hard enough to need the rear fade resistance. If you wanna do it for street cred, have fun.

Supercharged111 said:

I threw a junkyard rear end in the truck back in 2012 with God knows how many miles on the shoes/drums and they're still going strong. You're greatly exaggerating the difference that discs make and completely ignoring the bias requirement on something you'll never drive hard enough to need the rear fade resistance. If you wanna do it for street cred, have fun.

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Good . Thanks

I just want discs because the drums are ugly and and a pain in the ass. Going to be mostly a street truck. lq4 swap hopefully.

That is a decision only you can decide. The only thing I see is hardtop find calipers that will work with the size of the brakes you need for your weight class. I would love rear disc brakes. Cant find them to work with the parking brake.

Blackwater said:

That is a decision only you can decide. The only thing I see is hardtop find calipers that will work with the size of the brakes you need for your weight class. I would love rear disc brakes. Cant find them to work with the parking brake.

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They sell a kit on eBay for the 14 bolt full float that has calipers with provision for a park brake. The only issue is you have to rake out $500.

Carolina_'99Hoe said:

They sell a kit on eBay for the 14 bolt full float that has calipers with provision for a park brake. The only issue is you have to rake out $500.

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Will it work for a 9.5 SF?

Nope, 14 FF and 14 SF are two different animals...

On any truck, you definately WANT more weight in the rear to balance the truck front to rear. By design, trucks have all their weight up front to offset additional weight from a full payload... they were designed this way because of their intended use... removing weight off the front is where you should look at.

As for rear drums, Discs look cool, but unless you are going full tilt, with huge race-spec calipers and rotors, you are wasting money and risking safety... The advantages to discs are weight savings and better heat dissipation during repeated braking.. ie.) racing conditions.

Drum Brakes also have more surface area to stop a vehicle and work much better for emergency brake use... this is why almost all stock rear disc systems now have a built-in mini-drum for the ebrake... but funny enough, most companies dont call those an "Emergency Brake" anymore because its an automatic liability claim, so they now call them a "Parking Brake" instead... few folks realize this.
If you use that Disc brak's mini-drum as an Emergency Brake, it will damn near disintegrate and competely fail... (ask me how I know).

You can do what you wish, but you can make a rear drum look good, clean them up and simply paint the drums in hi-temp Black, or detail them to match the body... (Black dissipates heat the best)

...edit, you can make anything "work", but be prepared to do a lot of fabri-cobbling to get it to.