1500 vs 25/3500 MC

[Kyle Hobdy]

I’m doing a 14 bolt swap (5lug to 8 lug) on my truck. So the front end rear end will obviously be getting the much larger brakes that accompany the 8 lug hub.

will i need to upgrade my master cylinder to something else? Any other brake items that may need to be replaced?

96 c1500 non hydro boost.

 

[Carlaisle]

The larger brakes need a larger volume of fluid to operate properly. The master cylinder on a one ton is about 23% larger than on a 1500. Not sure if there is any way to connect the one ton master cylinder to a vacuum booster, but maybe someone knows for sure? The hydro boost operates at nearly double the pressure of the vacuum booster. If you do swap in the hydro boost and don't upgrade everything else, I would be concerned that GM might not have engineered the hoses and hard lines on the 1500 to survive that pressure. I would want some hard data on the engineering parameters used there or just upgrade everything to be certain. There really is no good time to have a brake failure.

 

[454cid]

Some of the early trucks were non-hydroboost. I believe JB7 were basically the same rear brakes but non-hydro...maybe narrower shoes?

Start looking through Rockauto's catalog and comparing part numbers.

 

[evilunclegrimace]

The larger brakes need a larger volume of fluid to operate properly. The master cylinder on a one ton is about 23% larger than on a 1500. Not sure if there is any way to connect the one ton master cylinder to a vacuum booster, but maybe someone knows for sure? The hydro boost operates at nearly double the pressure of the vacuum booster. If you do swap in the hydro boost and don't upgrade everything else, I would be concerned that GM might not have engineered the hoses and hard lines on the 1500 to survive that pressure. I would want some hard data on the engineering parameters used there or just upgrade everything to be certain. There really is no good time to have a brake failure.

The 3500 master bolts up to the 1500 booster just fine. As far as the steel lines and rubber lines don't worry about, it there is no difference

 

[JStew]

Are the abs units the same? What is involved with front suspension swap? I am looking at doing this also.