HI y'all! Man, I got a new set of shoes for the rear brakes on the ram. The wheel cylinder had broke open/leaking everywhere, opened it up back there to find the eBrake had fell apart, just a mess!

So I go buy new shoes from Auto Zone, 2 wheel cylinders, cleaner and fluid. I take the drivers side apart 1st. Get wheel cylinder on nice and tight, all pretty cuz its new, and start to put together the shoes when I couldnt get everything to line up or fit right! Frustrating!!

After looking around I notice the secondary shoes are not same as the shoes on the truck. The primary ones(you know, the ones with the larger amount of material)are identical. But both of the secondary shoes have the material about 2 inches lower than the ones on truck! Huh?
Why? I check everything, part #'s, other stores part #'s, took pics and I cant for the life of me figure out why theyre like this.

I did notice that if the material was moved up a little bit further, it would all be right. They would be perfect! So the only problem is that the material is simply stuck on there, mounted to it, about 2 inches too low. It's riveted on there too so I cant remove em and move the things up and then resecure them back on. It's part #462. And it's the 1998 dodge ram 1500 quad cab, 5.9L.

Thanks for any info about this and/or what y'all think I should do.
Heres a pic or 2. I got a few more, several angles, both sides, just about any pic you could want to see.



The bottom, old still on truck, I'm holding new shoe in my hand up to it.

 

Do you know how I can make the pic a little bit smaller?
These 2 pics are from the pass side rear brakes. The drivers is already off truck. When going to reassmble it I couldnt get it just right and I realized finally that the shoes were diff sizes.
The primary ones, those 2 that are bigger than the other 2 shoes, those are perfect I believe. Theres one hole not there but I dont think that comes into play. But it's the other 2 that are not lining up the same.

The material is actually the EXACT same size, it's just lower down on the piece than the ones are on the truck! Weird! And as I was saying, the other 2 with the more material are fine. It's crazy. Its just the 2 that have the lesser bit of material that arent lined up because they put the material 2 inches lower and THEN riveted it on there!
I mean, I assume that theres not a different set of shoes numbered "462" that the material is up 2 inches or so before being riveted to the bracket thing?

Ehhh!? Anybody ever seen this before? Thanks!!

 

You have two different sized shoes. The one with the smaller 'pad' area goes on the front side of the drum, the larger one goes to the rear. Reason being: The front shoe is 'self-energizing'. The mere act of it touching the drum pulls it in tighter.

The swept surface being lower on the shoe isn't a big deal, probably makes the 'self-energizing' thing work even better.....

 

Thanks for hitting back! Appreciate that.

I'm with ya, if you feel good about it being lowered 1 1/2" on the 2 secondary, smallest of the 4 shoes, and you think it's supposed to be that way, then I'm throwing em on in the morning! Thanks too.

It just sort of freaked me out a bit. All the #'s matched at the parts stores, I didnt see any other alternate shoes anywhere and I sure didn't want to go get some used ones from the you pull it down here!

Why did they even lower the dang shoes on that bracket piece that holds them on that far?? You guys think it's prob gonna work better or at least just as well and I would too if I knew as much as y'all. But when I see something THAT far off, I tend to get a lil excited, worried!

Thanks again!

 

Hey, they change part designs more often than some folks change their underwear.... I do not always see the point in said changes.... but, I would guess that someone does.

 

Oh yea? Well, prob like you said, prob gonna do better. I finally finished the shoes but had to go to you pull it and grab some drums. 1 of mine had 2 gouges in it all the way around it! So I bought 2 off the same truck as I was lil apprehensive just throwing a used one on there without knowing if they were the same thickness.
Do the drums in a 97 Ram 1500 w the quad cab, the 5.9l(actually the same truck) fit the same truck in 1998? The one I got. It was even same color and everything!

 

So far as I know, for the half ton trucks, the drums were the same from 94 all the way to 2001.

 

Thanks Heyyou. You're a big help(as always)!

They're like NEW now! Now, I just need to flush the brake fluid and I'll have rear brakes that'll last a long time! I assume I simply drain the fluid out of one of the wheels until empty? Prob NOT! So, look for yet another question about flushing!

Thx again!

 

You need to bleed it until new fluid is coming out. You can't just drain it out and then refill. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the process of bleeding them, but there are plenty of YouTube videos that show you the whole process.

While you can do it via pumping the brakes, I personally find a MightVac (7201 in my case, but any of the bigger ones work) well worth the money when it comes to flushing the brake fluid. It makes everything so much faster. There are also a few pressure bleeders that force the fluid through instead of pulling it that work well as well. Some guys prefer the Motive or Phoenix pressure bleeders. It's all a personal preference and they all work pretty well.

 

Yea, Thanks hometheaterman! I happen to have a brand new one of those. It's just been sitting there for about a year maybe because I don't really know what all to use it for or how important it for stuff. Sounds like it's probably ex for brake bleeding.

That mighty vac was sort of expensive. Can't remember exactly.

I remember I just didn't start using it for much because I couldn't figure out the things that it was useful for. It seems like I was supposed to hook it up, somehow, to like a vac hose? Maybe a pcv hose or the brake booster hose or something like that. Then you could get some useful info but why would I "need" that info is what I thought. And then, couldn't I get that info from a diff way or source?

I don't know. I do wish I knew more about it as it just sits in that box it came in and never comes out to play!