Most Aggressive Rear Shoes?

454cid said:

I'd love to find some pad/shoe combination that gave me better brakes. I've never had friction material that I thought, wow, this really makes a difference. I admit, part of that may be because I wait too long to work on brakes.

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It's been a few months since I redid the brakes on my Suburban and so far I'm pretty impressed with the Raybestos EHT369H pads and OEM ACDelco shoes. It's not a night and day difference, but it's definitely noticeable.

I just dug out my OEM shoes that I have been saving. GM 12477878, AC Delco 171-815. They're an EE code. I got them NIB from a surplus auction..... a local company must have bought them ahead of time, and then retired the truck before needing them.

Supercharged111 said:

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I'm not sure if the thick shoe goes in the front?

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The "usual" system for "typical" shoes a thousand years ago, was that the primary shoe is shorter, thicker, lighter-colored, and softer than the secondary shoe which is longer, thinner, darker-colored, and harder.

But there's variations especially in color and thickness. So the best rule-of-thumb is that the shorter -friction-material shoe is the primary, the longer-friction-material shoe is the secondary. Primary to the front, secondary to the rear.

But I suppose you've already figured this out by now.

I've pulled brakes apart where the primary shoes are on one side, and the secondary shoes are on the other side. Or reversed--primary to the rear, secondary to the front.

And the light-duty "Leading/Trailing" shoes are all the same. When the front shoe wears thin, swap the front and rear to put the nice, thick, unworn rear shoe into the position that does all the braking.





I've seen bonded shoe friction material separate from the metal of the shoe. Most recently, on a Ford Aerostar. The shoes weren't all that worn, but the friction material just fell off the metal backing.

OTOH, I'm part-way into a brake job on my own K1500 (K2500 9.5" semi float axle) where the riveted shoes broke up, I'm missing big ol' chunks of friction material, and I've got beat-up mangled rivets still in the metal of the shoe.

I have no preference between riveted and bonded friction material on shoes. They ALL wear out, they all have failures.

Since you're in there I do recommend the Powerstops. I'll be putting them on my 1500 as well. I too have the 9.5" and it needs drums too. So does the dually. Not looking forward to that as it requires pressing the studs into the hubs/drums. With the rears so big on the dually, heavy empty braking will shake the truck a bit. With the old shoes I didn't really notice that but when I was running the adjusters down on the lift and spinning the drums/hubs I could hear the shoes kissing the drums in certain spots, but then letting go as they spun. I did think that was kind of neat with the pressed drums, that I could rough the adjustment in that close by feel. From there I just threw it in reverse and hit the brakes a dozen or so times. They really didn't seat until we took a trip with the camper, that's when they came alive.

All brake shoes/pads (friction material) needs to be burnished before it's gonna work right.

Ideally, that's done during the "test drive", but bigass brakes like that are going to need more load.

Something I was taught for when putting in new shoes that would need manual adjustment is to get the drum on and push on the brake pedal a few times to 'centralise the shoes'. Then do the adjustment.

Pinger said:

Something I was taught for when putting in new shoes that would need manual adjustment is to get the drum on and push on the brake pedal a few times to 'centralise the shoes'. Then do the adjustment.

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I just did drums on my Saturn and I did that a few times.....I read it either here or the Saturn forum. Although I've cleaned drums this was my first time actually rebuilding them with all new parts.

454cid said:

I just did drums on my Saturn and I did that a few times.....I read it either here or the Saturn forum. Although I've cleaned drums this was my first time actually rebuilding them with all new parts.

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Not just new either - any time the shoes have been disturbed they need re-centralising if they've to be manually adjusted.
Auto adjusters vary (I thnk) in that they self adjust via park brake application.

If doing the centralising thing though - don't forget to have the other side's drum in place also - or the cylinder will pop its piston!

Pinger said:

Auto adjusters vary (I thnk) in that they self adjust via park brake application.

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The two most-common types of self adjuster around here, are the sort that have the star wheel and mechanism at the bottom, connecting the two shoes; and the sort that have the star wheel at the top, just under the wheel cylinder.

The ones at the bottom are used with duo-servo brakes, they adjust when the vehicle brakes are released after braking in Reverse. The ones at the top are used with leading/trailing shoe brakes. They adjust when the brakes are applied AFTER using the park brake. Since folks don't generally use the park brake, the brakes get WAY out of adjustment.

Schurkey said:

The two most-common types of self adjuster around here, are the sort that have the star wheel and mechanism at the bottom, connecting the two shoes; and the sort that have the star wheel at the top, just under the wheel cylinder.

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Not been inside my trucks drums yet but for sure in other vehicles there's variations on the themes.
My smart has the star wheel set up which is in effect a ratchet. The 'pawl' - a strip of spring steel - is actually bi-metallic to prevent over adjustment when the drum is expanded when very hot.

Schurkey said:

The ones at the bottom are used with duo-servo brakes, they adjust when the vehicle brakes are released after braking in Reverse. The ones at the top are used with leading/trailing shoe brakes. They adjust when the brakes are applied AFTER using the park brake. Since folks don't generally use the park brake, the brakes get WAY out of adjustment.

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I do (with everything) - unless I know it's going to be laid up for a while and the shoes would stick to the drum or freeze in winter. Not to use it is to have to un-seize everything for the annual safety inspection (known here as the MOT (Ministry Of Transport) or Moment Of Truth as I call it). Use it or lose it when it comes to brakes.