Rear disc brakes

[jess t]

Can a later model disc brake setup be adapted to a 92 model 1500 2wd? If so what works?

 

[TylerZ281500]

yea. 10 bolt and9.5 14 shared the same 4 bolt flange. you have a ton of options. people are using metric s10 calipres or eldorado was the first swap. you can swap dual piston 800 burb brakes, 900 brakes. theres a place called cunninham making a caliper bracket that uses stock k1500 front calipers. that would be my recomendation. your cross car depth is what youll need to be concerned about to make sure everything is centered. If you do something youll need to figure out your brake bias as well. stock master and such wont benefit a disc swap. theres always a dozen or so way to fix that issue as well. Search around the forums and facebook for awhile, educate yourself and take a few trips to the junkyard for measurements. its easy once you have a firm understanding.

The other question is why. i properly functioning drum setup has more braking surface area than a disc setup, for most applications its more than enough considering most of your bias isnt the rear.

 

[Erik the Awful]

There's a hundred ways to swap newer brake parts onto your existing truck. 99 of them result in worse brakes or better "feeling" brakes that don't make emergency stops well. You're going to need to do a lot of research.

Beware that most of our trucks have "quick take-up" calipers and master cylinders that don't mix and match well with "normal" calipers and masters.

Once you get past that hurdle, realize that disc brake calipers use a lot more fluid and pressure than wheel cylinders. Also, the master cylinder to caliper/wheel cylinder ratio needs to be within a usable range.

Here's a good primer:

Master Cylinder Math - JOES Racing Products

www.joesracing.com

 

[Schurkey]

There's a hundred ways to swap newer brake parts onto your existing truck. 99 of them result in worse brakes...

Saved me a bunch of typing. THANK YOU!

MOST rear-disc conversions are a money-sucking disaster of piss-poor engineering and ignorance. SOME rear disc conversions are actually done right and make sense. Nobody wants to pay for the "good" conversions.

A "92 model 1500 2wd" is almost certainly going to have the crappy 254mm Leading/Trailing shoe drums. The upgrade to 11.x Duo-Servo rear drums (and the wonderful 9.5" ring gear axle assembly) isn't as easy/inexpensive as with the 4WD trucks...but almost certainly better than the bottom-feeder "flat bracket" disc conversions.

 

[jess t]

upgrade to 11.x Duo-Servo rear drums

This!!! ....is what I really rather do, but my search for said parts has been fruitless! I have the unusual 1990 SS 454 rear end under my truck already, but of course it has the "crappy Leading/Trailing shoe drums". Can I just buy new backing plates/drums/shoes/hardware for a particular application that will fit the 5 lug axles, bolt to the ends of the axle assembly, and hook to my E brake cables? If so what is that particular application? Suburbans? Police units? 87 down C1500? TIA jess

 

[shovelbill]

There's a hundred ways to swap newer brake parts onto your existing truck. 99 of them result in worse brakes or better "feeling" brakes that don't make emergency stops well. You're going to need to do a lot of research.

Beware that most of our trucks have "quick take-up" calipers and master cylinders that don't mix and match well with "normal" calipers and masters.

Once you get past that hurdle, realize that disc brake calipers use a lot more fluid and pressure than wheel cylinders. Also, the master cylinder to caliper/wheel cylinder ratio needs to be within a usable range.

Here's a good primer:

Master Cylinder Math - JOES Racing Products

www.joesracing.com

And most certainly get the flat conversion bracket...We know how much you like those.

EDIT: I didn't see your follow-up post.

 

[Caman96]

10 bolt and9.5 14 shared the same 4 bolt flange

Is this true? I thought this was gone over in another thread and they were different. IIRC it was @df2x4. Maybe I’m wrong.

 

[TylerZ281500]

Is this true? I thought this was gone over in another thread and they were different. IIRC it was @df2x4. Maybe I’m wrong.

i mean somehow if they arent then with no struggle at all i put gmt800 suburban dual piston calipers on my semifloat with no hassle whatsoever. h2 brakes on my otherone but that SF to SF so i see hwo that would be easy. spacing is just way different so you have to get the 1320 adapter. else a bunch of other places make the spacer too.

 

[Caman96]

There’s quite a few posts on forum about this, all indicating it’s a no-go.
@Schurkey points this out in post #25 in this thread:

10 bolt upgrades ("big" 8.5", 30 spline, w/big axle shafts and big wheel bearings)

This is a 1995 Tahoe 4WD 2DR 5.7L w/3.42 gears. Thanks for reading! (and I've already got 11" duo-servo rear drums I need to install; which is partly why I'm thinking if I've got to pull the axle shafts to install those, what else should I do while I'm at it) The 11" rear drums won't bolt on...

www.gmt400.com

 

[df2x4]

Is this true? I thought this was gone over in another thread and they were different. IIRC it was @df2x4. Maybe I’m wrong.

Fairly sure that the five lug (454SS) 9.5" 14 bolt has different brake mounting flanges than the standard 10 bolt. Not sure about other variations...