keep stock drum or swap to disk on rear 99 K2500?

[Ckeene]

I have a 1999 k2500 that has a BAD brake drum problem, even had to have the rear tires balanced while on the truck to get most of the vibration out. It was bad when I bought it(previous owner had new brakes put on, I think the drums are just to unbalanced). looking for suggestions if I should just try to redo the rear brakes with new parts or is there a benefit to use the lugnut4x4 kit?

 

[Caman96]

 

[454cid]

Could be unbalanced drums, but I would look at hubs/bearing/axle-shafts as well. Given you've got a Suburban, I'm guessing your brake RPO is JD7, right?

The issue with disc brake kits is that they almost always don't secure the caliper well enough, and they use old design small calipers. Unless they use a Cadillac caliper you'll lose your parking brake too. If you really want discs the far better solution would be to swap in GMT-800 brakes. That involves either getting a whole axle, and moving shock and spring mounts, or possibly buying new flanges that will allow you to use newer truck discs on your existing axle but those are also weld on.

I'm sticking with drums.

 

[Caman96]

Drums x2. No need to reinvent the wheel.

 

[Ckeene]

yeah I want to keep it stock as much as possible. swapping in a different axle is no where on my radar. I would rather keep drums, but I keep hearing horrible stories about how bad new drums are. does anyone know of a place to get good drums from?
if, big if, I go to disk I will get the parking brake calipers.
funny thing is I just sold my very nice 05 Avalanche 2500 8.1, had too many vehicles around the house and I choose to keep the older, more miles, very base model suburban.

 

[Ckeene]

not sure about the RPO code. I went to check and most of the sticker is rubbed off.
is there anywhere to look up codes by the VIN?
ok I did find a JD7.

 

[454cid]

not sure about the RPO code. I went to check and most of the sticker is rubbed off.
is there anywhere to look up codes by the VIN?
ok I did find a JD7.

I beleive the JD7 uses 2.5" wide shoes, and the drum is "pinned" on the back of the hub by the studs. Besides things not being round/true with good bearings, it's possible that the mating surfaces between the hub and drum got some grit or something in between when being re-assembled. I had that happen on my front discs... I checked runout, and it was out of spec. Once I split the hub and disc apart and re-cleaned everything, it was fine.

 

[454cid]

I have no idea if new drums for our trucks are made well, or not. I bought some for my old Saturn SL2 and I could feel that they were not quite right, but given it was a cheap commuter car for me, I let it go.... they were also only $10 drums.

 

[Schurkey]

If the choice is between a cheap-junk "conversion" or keeping the big, powerful 13" drums...I'll keep the drums.

If the choice is between a properly-engneered (expensive) conversion, using suitably-huge aftermarket parts or OEM parts from a similar GVW vehicle, I'd give the conversion serious consideration--but probably still keep the drums.

I've had the brakes apart on my JD7 '97 K2500; and the drums/shoes/seals/gaskets ain't half as bad as I feared. Wheel cylinders kinda suck, though. Little clearance between the inside of the cylinder and the leaf springs. The worst part of that brake job was bending new tubing from the brake hose out to each wheel cylinder.

In the end, I popped the four bolts at each of the flanges, and just removed the backing-plates

 

[454cid]

I've had the brakes apart on my JD7 '97 K2500; and the drums/shoes/seals/gaskets ain't half as bad as I feared. Wheel cylinders kinda suck, though. Little clearance between the inside of the cylinder and the leaf springs. The worst part of that brake job was bending new tubing from the brake hose out to each wheel cylinder.

In the end, I popped the four bolts at each of the flanges, and just removed the backing-plates

What didn't you like about the wheel cylinders? Aren't most the same design?