Express van Yukon brake swap?

Curtis, are the vans all hydroboost or vacuum brakes? If it's vacuum I would think hydroboost could also be a nice upgrade while you're in there. 

Mr_Asa said:

Are your new calipers a bigger bore than the old?  Are you going to need to upgrade your master cylinder?

According to the googles, the M/C for the later vans has a different part number, but bore on both is listed as 34mm.  The only difference I can find is that the early had both ports threaded for 12mm flare and the newer ones had 12mm front and 14mm rear.

That doesn't mean anything other than GM thought 34mm was good for both.

Edit... just found the info on Centric's website.  Both the 06 and the 10 caliper are dual 2" piston

In reply to WillG80 :

This one is hydroboost.  I'm pretty sure they all were.  I couldn't imagine fitting a vac booster on that firewall so I imagine they all are.

My 2005 is hydro boost.....

Sounds like a worthy upgrade when I consider my experience with van brakes. My Ford E250 eats rotors like it's going out of style. Replaced the rotors and 10k later they are warped. I'm guessing due to weight. The 2008 Econolines have a bigger front brake that is supposedly bolt in. 

How are you liking the Falkens?

CyberEric said:

How are you liking the Falkens?

Better than I expected!  They look like they'd be noisy, but they are whisper quiet.  Only had one day of rain so far and it was just a light mist, and hopefully won't have any snow for many months.

Hard to compare ride quality because they replaced E-range donuts.  Suffice it to say much better.

Good to know, and glad to hear it. 

I'm curious, how concerning is it to you that brakes are pulsing? You've got me thinking I might want to do the big brake upgrade for my van, but I have some other things I've been wanting to address before this popped up (rear springs are sagging).

The shop I took it to wasn't concerned, but I don't really trust them.

I don't stress a single minute over pulsing brakes, it's just an annoyance. i would imagine that if they're REALLY bad it might cause a safety issue if it affects where they lock up. There are two things that affect pulsing - rotors with runout/warping, and the only thing that really does is that the warped part of the rotor tends to momentarily add a bit more friction as the caliper tries to slide out of the way on the pins, and deposits on the rotor.  Depending on the pad material, they can burn some of the pad onto to the rotor when you stop and they're hot; kinda like leaving an iron on a shirt too long.  It just makes a spot where the coefficicent of friction is different.

But overall braking isn't usually affected.  I would guess that if you did  a brake distance test on two identical vehicles - one with pusling and one without - they would likely be the same.

I agree with the shop.  Not a concern, just annoying.

There are lots of schools of thought on whether or not to machine rotors to get a fresh, straight surface.  These days with the costs of rotors going down it's rare that people even consider it.  Back in the day when you had massive cast-iron drums and rotors that were relatively expensive (and every shop had a lathe) you could resurface them for a tiny fraction of the cost of buying new.  Now you can sometimes buy new rotors for less than having old ones turned.

I could have bought new rotors for the front of the van for under $50. (but I splurged)

Got it, very helpful as usual. Thanks! The pulse I experience is still very minor and not even consistently there. I'll put it on the bottom of my list of things to do.

Good luck with the new upgraded brakes. I love finding out that there is an easy swap from another vehicle to increase performance!