I notice my truck has drums in the rear and disc in the front (duh) well I was looking at a ('00 I'm guessing?) F-150 XLT and it had disc/discs? Why did Ford switch to this? I hear drums last longer or can withstand higher loads?

 

Cause nobody likes to change shoes . I think the disc brake system is a safer braking method.

 

Disc braking system has already proven its functionality :o Although the most typica disc brake­ on modern cars is the single-piston floating caliper it doesn't work the way I want it.

 

Drum brakes in the rear make it easy to
provide an emergency brake.

Emergency
brakes on a disc rear are a nightmare to change.

Most of the use and wear are on the front anyway.

 

Disc brakes run cooler when towing or hauling heavy loads. Drums act like an insulator holding heat inside, this will cause the shoes to glaze from overheating. Disc brakes also stay cleaner, unlike drums which trap the dust inside. If the truck is used for off-roading, drums will fill with mud and water making them useless.

 

Gotcha. Any way of telling when the drum pads or whatever they use need to be replaced? Im at 167K miles and I just now did my front pads. They were ALL the way to the base almost. Should I expect another 50K before the drums need to be changed?

 

New rear shoes ar about 1/4 to 3/8 inch
thick.
If you look at the shoes and they are less than
1/8 inch. just buy new ones for $25.
You need to return the old shoes for
a core charge as they re manufacture
them.

Before taking apart ONE wheel, make sure
you look at and understand how the e brake
connects and turns the star adjuster so you
lubricate it and put it back the same way.

Turn the drums or grind off the lip.

You need to have a Brake adjuster and a
set of spring stretchers to safely pull the
big springs off.
The other end of the tool allows one to loop
the spring and pull over the post for reassembly.

 

You'll probably need to do the fronts 1 or 2 more times before the rear shoes need to be replaced. This is because the majority of the braking takes place up front, the rear drums are used to mostly stabilize the truck. The 4 wheel disc systems are set up to spread the braking force more evenly over all 4 corners. That's why it's not uncommon for the rear pads to need replacement before the front ones.

The correct way to service drum brakes is to replace the shoes, springs and wheel cylinders. The adjusters can be cleaned, lubed and reinstalled. Pull the drums off a couple times a year and inspect the wheel cylinders for signs of leakage. A leaking wheel cylinder could fail under hard braking causing a loss of the rear brakes.

 

discs are way better then drums will ever be.

i hope you take the time to read this casue it might get long...

ok... i have a 1998 ford f150 with the 4.2L V6 its a 5 speed manual with 3.55 gears...
One day my pickup just started shaking out of the middle of noware... if i moved the steering wheel pressed the brakes or gave it more gas it wouldent quit. it would just keep doing it... so i asked dad about it... hes a very good machanical guy... he rode in it and it did it again... i asked him what he thought it was... he said he dint no... so we took it to the dealer... he took it for a drive and he couldent tell what it was... he said i have never had this kind of problem in my 25 years of working here... so we got out... all we could smell was burning brakes... ( i dint smell them before becasue when it happened i would stop asap casue it was so bad it would shake the pickup out of gear!!)

anyway... he took the back driver side wheel off and looked in the drum... he said it was blue!!! (that means at one point it was really hot) anyway... he pushed on the brakes and everything... and they all worked fine... then he said i dont no what the deal is... ( then right before i was about to back it out of the shop he said wait!!! he said i dint check the parking brake cable... so he did... it was froze up... causeing my parking brake to be engaged all the time on that one wheel... but it wasnt engaged enouh to feel a hold back when xcelerating... anyway... we bought new parts for it... just left the drum that was blue on there... casue im only 17 and cant afford a 140 dollar set of drums (casue if i was gunna replace one i might as well replce them both) anyway...
he just unhooked both parking brakes (casue they only go to the back brakes) so i wouldent accidently set it...

so he ordered the brake cable... he said come back in 1 week and i can put them on... well with me being a 17 year old and not having deep pockets... i said no me and dad can just put them on...

we havent found the time to put them on yet... so i have been driving around for about 3 months with no parking brake

anyway... i was wondering if anyone would have a guess on how complicated this job will be... like i said dad is a good mechanic... but he will be to busy to help me... so it will prly just be me puttin them on...

what is the difficulty of this operation on a scale of 1-10? anyone no?

 

Drums are junk and should be illegal.

All cars and trucks should have 4 wheel discs standard. Give it another 20 years and hopefully they will.

Sure your car or truck stops with drums but it would stop better with discs!

 

thanks for clearing that up... we pretty much said that already though.

 

just think lots of cars as early as the 60s had stock drums up front. my buddy had a 65 cadillac and we spent more time working on those breaks.. what a pain.