Thanks for the reference and experience ...kinda what I was looking for. I figured there must be still one maker out there. I remember a few years back there was a company specializing in drum brake systems ...for classic cars and trucks and newer vehicles as well ...for owners who didn't want to convert to discs. They made their own drums and had high perf linings on the shoes they sold. I will definitely touch bases with the R1 guys!I use these guys rotors & drums.
They have a higher nickel content which helps handle the heat better, reducing warping. By a lot.
I'm hard on brakes. 20,000+ miles per year of 'me' driving.
I'd kill a set of $60.00 off-the-shelf jobber rotors in 8 months. So warped they couldn't be turned.
Drums would last for a couple of years till they were dead.
The E-line rotors lasted over 5+ years. Turned 3x.
The set of their drums installed at the same time were never turned & were only removed to adjust the shoes.
(The adjusters on these trucks are crap.)
Those drums are still on the truck in some P-n-P somewhere &, more than likely, still very serviceable.
Yea, the initial outlay is kind of expensive, but I would of bought 7.5 sets of the rotors during the time that the R1's lasted.
$250.00 for the R1's as opposed to $450.00 for the jobbers. ($60x7.5)
2.5 sets of jobber drums over that same period.
You don't need the drilled & slotted versions.
Some will say that drilled ones are prone to cracking around the holes.
I had those & never had that problem.
There is no performance advantage.
Some like the slotted rotors which supposedly help to let any gasses escape that develop between the pad & the rotor.
On these trucks, unless they're being rallied/road raced/driven stupid hard, (Moi? Nooo. Hehe.) there is is, once again, no real gain in stopping performance.
I use/like ceramic ads.
They take a bit to get up to temp. Couple of blocks or three. The first couple of stops can be disconcerting, ("C'mon! Whoa. I said WHOA!, *****!) but once you get used to that, it becomes part of driving the truck. Automatically taken into account for.
...and the ceramics are low-dust.
Brake dust on fancy wheels is a pet peeve. It can be a PitA to clean that crud off.
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Replacement Brake Drums
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Jeff Janssen
Newbie
I bought a truck with a bad brake shudder. It turned out it had a bent axle, which on my 98 2WD really threw the drum around. I could visibly see it with the rear wheels on stands.
Kens1990K2500
One Piece At A Time
I have a Honda Civic and recently did front brakes, using ceramic pads and am very happy with the smoothness, quietness and stopping power of them.I use these guys rotors & drums.
They have a higher nickel content which helps handle the heat better, reducing warping. By a lot.
I'm hard on brakes. 20,000+ miles per year of 'me' driving.
I'd kill a set of $60.00 off-the-shelf jobber rotors in 8 months. So warped they couldn't be turned.
Drums would last for a couple of years till they were dead.
The E-line rotors lasted over 5+ years. Turned 3x.
The set of their drums installed at the same time were never turned & were only removed to adjust the shoes.
(The adjusters on these trucks are crap.)
Those drums are still on the truck in some P-n-P somewhere &, more than likely, still very serviceable.
Yea, the initial outlay is kind of expensive, but I would of bought 7.5 sets of the rotors during the time that the R1's lasted.
$250.00 for the R1's as opposed to $450.00 for the jobbers. ($60x7.5)
2.5 sets of jobber drums over that same period.
You don't need the drilled & slotted versions.
Some will say that drilled ones are prone to cracking around the holes.
I had those & never had that problem.
There is no performance advantage.
Some like the slotted rotors which supposedly help to let any gasses escape that develop between the pad & the rotor.
On these trucks, unless they're being rallied/road raced/driven stupid hard, (Moi? Nooo. Hehe.) there is is, once again, no real gain in stopping performance.
I use/like ceramic ads.
They take a bit to get up to temp. Couple of blocks or three. The first couple of stops can be disconcerting, ("C'mon! Whoa. I said WHOA!, *****!) but once you get used to that, it becomes part of driving the truck. Automatically taken into account for.
...and the ceramics are low-dust.
Brake dust on fancy wheels is a pet peeve. It can be a PitA to clean that crud off.
R1 Concepts - Performance Brake Parts, Rotors, Pads, Kits: Custom & Aftermarket
Shop R1 Concepts performance brake parts, brake pads, rotors, kits and more. R1 Concepts is the leading manufacturer of braking systems for all vehicles
Kens1990K2500
One Piece At A Time
How do you test/measure drums for out-of-round?
Kens1990K2500
One Piece At A Time
My brother had a garage replace his rear brakes, including drums. The car made a scraping/grinding noise when braking. Had to bring the car back to the shop, who put a second set of new drums on it (and I think they also turned the 2nd pair of drums too), and finally the noise disappeared. It's frustrating the poor quality of parts these days.
NOT AT ALL.
Warped rotors are common as dirt. I know the source of that "warped rotor myth"; and while I have the utmost respect for Carroll Smith (RIP), (I own most of his books!) he's wrong in this instance. MAYBE he's right when it comes to race cars with huge brakes and race-course heavy braking. He's NOT correct for street-driven vehicles.
I have cut heaps and piles of rotors. I can watch the high-spots get carved-off by the rotor lathe while the cutting bit doesn't touch the low spots. Car comes in with pulsing brakes, we cut the rotors, and it drives out with smoothly-operating brakes. The warpage gets turned to iron powder by the brake lathe, and the rotors are true again. (Albeit thinner, and with less mass. There's a limit to how much can be cut to salvage a rotor or drum.)
Warpage (and thickness variation) can be measured on-the-vehicle, warpage with a dial indicator looking for Total Indicated Runout, (TIR) and thickness variation with a disc micrometer.
Warped/worn Trailblazer rotor being resurfaced on an ancient Bear brake lathe. Section of warpage and uneven wear visible (dark). Fresh metal is silver-colored.
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New K2500 rotor freshly-installed onto 8-lug hub, being checked for TIR.
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I agree with Schurkey. It's been 25 years since I've turned a rotor, but yes, they were warping. We didn't cut carbon off them, we cut iron.
Thegatekeeper
Newbie
I own a 1994 Chevy 1/2 ton 2x4 single cab short bed 4.3L V6. Some of these 94's 
were built using "extra parts" that GM had from 91-93. So you must physically match the part number from the part you are replacing with what the parts house claims to be the the new part. Their computer systems show parts for the year model you own, not the parts that fit on your truck. This sounds insane. If your title says cab & chassis, (this means it was incomplete from the factory, these were to be converted to a hearse, but sometimes dealers ordered to many so they put a normal bed on it and moved on. LOL SOME of your major insurance carriers WILL NOT insure your incomplete vehicle PERIOD) ..... If you decide to replace the front wheel bearings.. Or ANYTHING in that portion of the truck, STOP. you will find that some of these have a 1inch thick rotor, others have 1.2 inch thick rotors. BE RIGHT because spindle is not just a 1/4 different in length, the tapper on the shaft is about .180 different on the back side, lol but the outside is the same bearing size-lol so if adjusting factory ride height, most kits are specifically for the 1.2 thick rotor braking system. New wheels - backspacing/offset...So depending on what you have it will alter the back spacing and or offset needs...... Dont let the Vortec valve covers fool you. Turns out they just had extras. Personally i Got the itemized build sheet from GM -Every part on the dang thing- cause if this went on much longer I would have been on nation news Also some them dont all have the same brake system parts.... I am a engineer and machinist by trade. These rotors were the first warped factory rotors i have ever seen. I could have turned them, but they would have been so thin it would be deadly. Pads were in great shape
were built using "extra parts" that GM had from 91-93. So you must physically match the part number from the part you are replacing with what the parts house claims to be the the new part. Their computer systems show parts for the year model you own, not the parts that fit on your truck. This sounds insane. If your title says cab & chassis, (this means it was incomplete from the factory, these were to be converted to a hearse, but sometimes dealers ordered to many so they put a normal bed on it and moved on. LOL SOME of your major insurance carriers WILL NOT insure your incomplete vehicle PERIOD) ..... If you decide to replace the front wheel bearings.. Or ANYTHING in that portion of the truck, STOP. you will find that some of these have a 1inch thick rotor, others have 1.2 inch thick rotors. BE RIGHT because spindle is not just a 1/4 different in length, the tapper on the shaft is about .180 different on the back side, lol but the outside is the same bearing size-lol so if adjusting factory ride height, most kits are specifically for the 1.2 thick rotor braking system. New wheels - backspacing/offset...So depending on what you have it will alter the back spacing and or offset needs...... Dont let the Vortec valve covers fool you. Turns out they just had extras. Personally i Got the itemized build sheet from GM -Every part on the dang thing- cause if this went on much longer I would have been on nation news Also some them dont all have the same brake system parts.... I am a engineer and machinist by trade. These rotors were the first warped factory rotors i have ever seen. I could have turned them, but they would have been so thin it would be deadly. Pads were in great shape
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JN/JB3. Crappiest power brakes installed on a GMT400. So horrible that GM discontinued using the 1" rotor, I thought in '91 or '92, and the 1" rotor wasn't used on extended-cab trucks.
1.25. JN/JB5, most likely.
The 4.3L V-6 was called "Vortec" starting in late '84 for the '85 model year.
This is not the same as what enthusiasts call "Vortec" which started in '96. In other words, there was a big upgrade in the '96 model year, and the V8 engines got the Vortec name in addition to the V6 which had been using that name for a decade.
