brake troubleshooting

[tard01]

Rotors. Pads, bearings, seal replaced.... Re-bled front brakes only.... Bled theentire system last week. Flushed the brake fluid in process.

I still have to pump that initial time... Some worse than others, but I definitely feel like once I have pressure its super firm and doesn't get lost until I leave it alone for a bit... I get no bite... Can't slam brakes or even stop fast at low speed.
.. unable to screech the front tires at all.

I did not find any fluid leaks of brake fluid... I'm not seeing anything that might be adding air or losing pressure.... If I hold the pedal while getting firm pressure for an extended period, I do not seem to lose it. So not suspecting a leak.

I'm trying to decide if the master cylinder, lines, or calipers need to be replaced.


Note... Other than bleed, I've not worked on rear brakes yet... I can't even slam brakes in reverse to tighten tears since I get no bite.


Brakes do slow me down a bit, but not a ton. Calipers did resqueeze when I put the new pads on so I think they are functional. Still thinking my hoses are fine..

Anyone got a troubleshooting tip I haven't done?
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[86c20]

sounds like the rears are out of adjustment

[tard01]

rears were out of adjustment and master cylinder had a leak on the manual push.


replaced master, which then enabled me to reverse slam adjust the rears, which imrpoved to the point that i was finally able to lock up all 4 tires on a slam.


still not near the quality of a booster, but it's as good as it's going to get without a booster.

i'll be hunting a booster in the spring after i get the necessities done.

[86c20]

i old school way to get around that is to adjust the crap out of the rears by useing a brake spoon (screw driver) and jaking it up spin the wheel and turn them up till they drag alittle. gives better pedle. good luck, mike

[tard01]

i decided to try your old school trick of over adjusting the rears.

i went to take off the drums (i just purchased project truck 2 weeks ago) and found that the driver rear was significantly over adjusted. getting the rotor off was a true act of force and it had nothing to do with rust. the pads were expanded terribly (no, parking brake was not on)

the passenger rear just had rust stick, but slid off with no pad resistance at all when we were done.


since i opened it up, i inspected the equipment. in the end i decided to go ahead and order new drums and shoes... drums probably werent necessary, but did anyway. shoes were close to end of life. they'd probably last me a year or two, but went ahead and got new ones.


i'll be replacing them on thursday when i'm off work -- first time doing drum replacements... i took lots of pictures. we'll see how this goes. i bought a spring tool to try and help safety on that part.



one thing i noticed.... for some reason the bigger shoe was in front.... i thought i rememebred that the physics behind the circular breaking was that the smaller went in front to get a smaller % and the bigger in the rear to get a bigger % that way it's more of an even braking force for the drum.

were 75 chevy's designed with the bigger shoe in front? or did the last person do them wrong? insight?

[tard01]

anyone able to comment in regards to 75 c10 drum shoes having the bigger shoe in front instead of back?

[INSIDIOUS '86]

Remember BOB big on back. The front are self energizing and have more bite so big on the back
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[86c20]

when you do the drums just do one at a time. pic's will help alot trust me. if the springs still have the paint on them that makes it alot ezer to if not no big deal. what i do is as i take it apart i set it on the ground in the shap of the drum so i can look at it when i put it back together. or i just take out the adjuster and take off the hold downs and the ebrake cable and leve the springs on that way you have the hole thing together to look at as all that will be replaced. good luck, mike