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How good are '94 burb brakes?

2K views 20 replies 9 participants last post by  BigBlueBurban 
#1 ·
I've got a '94 3/4 ton Suburban with hydroboost and a 454. How good are the brakes supposed to be?

I can just barely lock the tires up (well, abs kicks in) when empty. I recently put on new brake pads and rear checks out good. Everything seems to be in order brake and component wise.

Before I start searching for new front rotors, anyone know of major downfalls with this models brake system? Is it widely (except by me) known to have crappy brakes?

Lucas
 
#2 ·
a lot of older chevys have bad brakes. my brakes on my 95 were real spongey and both my dads have leaked at some time. try carrying a can of brake fluid around and make sure your resivor is full. it could be the master cylinder but its probably just a real small leak. i dont think it would be the rotors but you could take them off a give them a good look.
 
#3 ·
well I used to work on these back in the day. the major problem is people don't know how Hyrdo boost works. there is an accumulator on the head unit by the master. it hold about 5-8 strokes worth of P/S fluid. if by chance it becomes contaminated or full of air it will not give you the 5-8 pumps worth of presure. it will also give little or no back up to the regular apply force. now if you did everything right I would think its not a hydro boost issue if you have spongey brakes. I would think its a parking brake issue. most likely the cables going to the back wheels. if you left the old cables and didn't repair them correctly the wheel cylinders will be left floating in mid air with no return presure from the shoes & springs. if you set them up right then the reversing motion of the vehicle will adjust them as needed with every hard reverse stop. if not the shoes will get out of adjustment really fast and will give you really bad pedal feel. so I would suggest to you either check your set up or repair the parking brake cables as needed. I don't suggest removing the cables because that is the wrong way to fix it.
PS make sure the adjusters are the right ones for each side of the axle, and then make sure they are free to rotate with the adjuster.
PSS, the system you have should be "RWAL" not ABS. if its rwal then it only works on the rear brakes and doesn't work below 35 mph under normal conditions. if its got any codes then un hook your battery for 15 minutes and it will clear them so you can operate normal to see if it resets a code.
 
#4 ·
Have fun changing the rotors... they are mounted behind the hub assembly. You have to remove the nut holding the CV shaft. Free the shaft then take the four bolts holding the hub to the knuckle. Now the rotor and hub is on the ground. Then you need to seperate these by removing all the lug studs. If your not very mechanically inclined Id pay the $200 or so to get them swapped out.

Check your rear brake adj. like Yetti mentioned. This is probably the cause of your soft pedal.
 
#5 ·
Thanks guys,

The truck came from California, zero rust on body or frame with 80k miles on it. Slight paint pealing showing the primer underneath in a few spots. The parking brake works and its a '94, nuf said.

When I bought it, there was a bad hydroboost setup, leaked internally, so I replaced that and bled the crap out of the master cylinder hoping that between the two, my brakes would be much better; no change.

I inspected the rear brakes and found like new shoes on them with a nice close adjustment and a clean, fully functioning adjuster. The parking brake works just fine and feels really tight.

The front pads were worn about 1/2 way, so I replaced those thinking it was just a crappy brand installed or something (hoping it was at least). I know about the rotor PITA!! I busted a stud off, so that was fun figuring out how to get that apart without a manual, but figured it out in the end.

They aren't exactly spongy I guess. Sometimes they feel really tight and other times they feel soft. I was starting to think it was a glazed rotor or something and thats where I'm at now. I didn't get the rotors turned when I put on new pads, so I was going to do that as my next attempt....

Lucas
 
#7 ·
i too ahve a 94 3/4 burban with the 454. my brakes suck as well. the main problem with mine is that the front rotors warp. i've had them turned before and worked on before, but innevitably it comes back within a month or so. and although i've yet to confirm it, i'm pretty sure my rear drums are out of round as well... when i brake it feels like half of the rotation the brakes clamp, the other half they aren't even touching. it's something ive just gotten used to. i have looked online for upgraded rotors and up until recently, no one made slotted or drilled rotors for these because of the issue mentioned above with where they are mounted. Recently, i've found a few companies that offer slotted and/or drilled rotors. personally if i were to upgrade, i'd just go with slotted as i've heard a few horror stories about drilled rotors. just my 2 cents and experience.
 
#9 ·
lucassssssss!

When I had a hydro boost equipped rig I couldn't get them to work for $hit!. I replaced everything, pad,drums, shoes, rotors etc. Turned out the PS pump was dying, replaced it still had $hitty brakes, also had a hard time getting them to bleed. Jack the front end of the truck off the ground, bleed your powersteering system, then your brakes. SOunds stupid but it worked on mine.
 
#11 ·
well he just said what is wrong. he replaced the pads without truning the rotors. so that means the surface area that contacts the pads are not true. with that you create air gaps and hot spots. I would recomend replacing the pads again when the rotors are turned or replaced. secondly if you use a high metalic pad they create "gas" that lets the pad "float" and they prevent max braking. so stick wit the cheapies and they will do a better job. about the best way to get the best performance is to go with vented rotors from Bear Brakes that vent the gas and allow the use of better pads
 
#12 ·
well he just said what is wrong. he replaced the pads without turning the rotors.
When I did this I inspected the rotors and they appeared to be fine by my eye, but I scuffed them up with some sand paper for shits and giggles. The brakes sucked even before I put new pads on. I had a bad experience with a certain brake pad on my Jeep, so I wanted to eliminate the pad being the problem.

Thats what I was planning on doing, just I was going to buy some new rotors that were slotted along with some good pads instead of turning these down.

Thanks

Lucas
 
#16 ·
I would say what every you decide on rotors will do as long as the face is vented. the biggest problem with good metalic brakes in the discharge of gases from the material while doing braking under load. the factory pads are engineered to be as good and as cheap as posible. the problem is when you use to many different things at once you tend to loose sight of the problem your fixing. if you need rotors do them and replace the pads with new ones of what you have. if you did everything else right then there should be no issues. I am sorry for ragging on smasher , but I see all to many times that people give partial or incomplete info and leave people hanging on issues. I have no problem with anyones ability, but we're talking the safety of peoples family here and theres no room for errors. so save the cobbling for the trail repairs.
 
#20 ·
Well guys, thanks for the info. After looking at all the prices for some better slotted rotors etc...I think I'm going to try the cheap route first and see what I can make of it.

I'll first try turning my rotors if they aren't too thin already and put on some new pads. I'll also try to flush the brake fluid out, put in some new stuff, blead the crap out of everything and see what happens.

Lucas
 
#21 ·
good luck. let us know how it turns out... and if all else fails, there's always the emergency brake :miff:
 
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