I am not sure if everyone knows this or not but I did some reading and this really worked (for me)

I went ahead and purchased ($22.00 total) new wheel cylinders from a 1998 (I think it can be newer)dodge ram3500 and put them on my1997 dodge ram 1500. It was a direct swap no modifications. It helped stoppingwith a boat on the back. I hope that some one else can benifit from this.

Here is the thread I read

https://dodgeforum.com/m_511650/tm.htm

 

Can you tell us more about what you did specifically? Where did you get the parts from? How long did it take?

Thanks, i'm intersted in this upgrade myself.

 

As am I...

 

I am not sure how detailed you want this but I am going to be as detailed as possible so please no one get offended

[ul][*]$10.99 a wheel cylinder and you need one for each side from Autozone[*]took about an hour probably less if I wasn't distracted by my kids and wife [/ul]

Here are the steps I did (sorry no pics if needed I can take some) **did one side at a time**
[ol][*]take off rear wheel[*]take off rear drum[*]took springs off that hold on the brake shoes[*]on the back of the brake I disconnected the brake line (3/8" wrench)****make sure you do not take the lid off yet from the fluid reservoir under the hood...that is in another step below[*]took out the bolts holding the wheel cylinder on (1/2" socket)[*]removed oldwheel cylinder and put new one from the 3500 (1 ton) in its place[*]hooked up brake line getting as tight as you can or want[*]put the bolts back in and tightened[*]checked and retightened brake line[*]put the springs back on the brake shoes and hooked back up[*]loosened the brake bleeder on the wheel cylinder[*]took off the lid from fluid reservoir under the hood[*]waited for all the bubbles to stop coming out from the bleeder then close it and open it a couple of time to make sure there are no bubbles...MAKE SURE TO WATCH THE RESERVOIR AND IT DOES NOT RUN OUT OF FLUID[*]put the lid back on the reservoir[*]put the rear drum back on (if you need to adjust your parking brake I would do it on this step)[*]put the rear wheel back on[*]start at 1 for the other side[/ol]
I hope this is detailed enough..I can't think of anything I left out.

 

Awesome! Thank you!
This seems like a relatively simple to do. I need to fix my brakes because one of the cylinders is leaking, as I just found out last week. I'm glad you posted this before I did it.

 

yeah the 1 ton wheel cylinders are only a couple dollars more than the 1/2 ton's

Glad it helped

 

Does the 2001 1500 2WD have drum brakes??????????

 

I don't know...what do you own?

 

Does anyone know if this will work on a 2001? The reason I ask is because the brakes on a 2001 are completly differnt from 1999 and below. It seemed like they were trying new things before they switched the body style.

 

from what I understand from reading other posts is that it will work on all second gen's just that if you have a 98 or older 1/2 ton you are supposed to get a 98 1 ton wheel cylinder and if it is 98 or newer 1/2 ton to get the same year you have just the 1 ton cylinder.