Replacement Brake Drums

[Mikes98]

What replacement drums have you folks had good luck with? In particular, drums that are actually machined round to meet factory spec (.005 max out of round, if I recall correctly).

My '98 GMC Sierra SL has the crappy 10" leading/trailing drum brakes. I recently replaced the shoes and went with new drums. The old drums, originals, had gone out of round because I did something stupid; missed the fact the E-brake wasn't fully disengaged and drove that way for awhile. End result was toasting and permanently out of rounding the drum(s). I tried having them turned but no luck. Loads of brake shudder and pedal pulsing ...got to the point were it was scary, especially at 70MPH interstate speeds.

My replacement drums are NAPA Premium Brake Drums ...made in China. Right. I scored a pair and checked for out of round: one was .009, the other .026(!). Took the .026 back to the store and got another. It checked out at .011. I didn't have the time to get another set of drums (they weren't showing in the local distribution system) so I went with these. Sad to say that after spending over $100 for some "premium" NAPA garbage, the shuddering was only marginally reduced than previously. After putting a few hundred miles on these drums I got the opportunity to address the shudder. Today I found a place that actually turns drums ( O'Reilly's seems to be the go to). Even my local machine shop doesn't turn drums or rotors ...says he loses money on it. O'Rielly's charged me $30 a drum(!) to turn them. Got them back on the truck, crossed the fingers and went for a drive. While the shuddering/pedal pulse has gotten a lot better, it's still there to a degree. So is this the new "normal" as far as brake drums? The market is flooded with garbage Chinese-made parts. NAPA used to be a reliable source for higher quality parts ...but it seems they're no better than any of the other major chain parts stores.

So what's the secret to getting brake drums that are round?

 

[Caman96]

Are sure shudder is from rear brakes?

 

[Rock Hard Concrete]

I recently had my entire rear brakes done. The first set of new drums were so bad the truck almost shook off of the freeway. Took the truck back to the mechanic, and they said the new drums were so out of round they couldn't be turned. They replaced them with another set that they actually double checked before installation and now all is good. Apparently the biggest issue is not the manufacturing, but the shipping. If you take a perfectly round drum and package it incorrectly on a ship for weeks/months it will cause the drums to go out of round.

 

[tsr2185]

Same symptoms you are having I had. Replaced front rotors and fixed problem.

Are you sure your front rotors aren't the problem? Rotors are half the price of drums last i checked.

 

[Caman96]

Get her going and step on Emergency Brake only to isolate the rear. Assess.

 

[sewlow]

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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[Mikes98]

Are sure shudder is from rear brakes?

Oh yeah. The pulse is through the pedal ...there's no steering wheel vibrations if it were the front rotors. I've used the e-brake by itself (holding the release while applying e-brake pedal) and I can feel the pulsing through the e-brake pedal. At slow speeds, I can lightly apply the brakes and feel brake, then release, then brake, then release in conjunction with the out of round.

 

[Mikes98]

Apparently the biggest issue is not the manufacturing, but the shipping. If you take a perfectly round drum and package it incorrectly on a ship for weeks/months it will cause the drums to go out of round.

Yes. Agree, that's probably the case when the stuff has to come from half way round the world. Problem is there seems to be no way around it.

 

[Mikes98]

Same symptoms you are having I had. Replaced front rotors and fixed problem.

Are you sure your front rotors aren't the problem? Rotors are half the price of drums last i checked.

Well, I had the drums turned, after putting about 500-800 miles on them, and the vibration and pulsing has decreased a lot ...not gone completely but definitely an improvement. So I'm guessing it's gotta be the drums. I looked at the front rotors (I rotated the tires at the same time since I had the truck on the lift) and the rotors look good ...I don't see any signs of uneven deposits. Rotors actually warping is a myth; it's all about uneven deposits of pad material causing the issue. I may go down that road ...

 

[Mikes98]

Get her going and step on Emergency Brake only to isolate the rear. Assess.

Yup. Been there done that and the assessment was it's the rear brakes.