Ok...another question that I've been needing some info on...


Last weekend while back home at my parents place I went out on Saturday night with friends...while driving I noticed my brakes made a bit of a grinding sound right before it came to a complete stop. I knew I needed my rotors turned cause since I bought the truck it's shook the hell outta me when I came to a stop at any speed.

Anyway, I went to O'reilly where I have a "friend"...he let me throw my rotors on the lathe and cut them down...they only took 2 passes each, which isn't great, but it's not bad either. I bought the Heavy Duty / High Performance Pads with the Lifetime warranty, some bearing grease, and brake cleaner, all at "employee prcing" hehe.

Since I pulled my wheel bearings I checked them and they were in great shape and had no slop so I repacked them snugged everything up, cleaned the spindles and dust shields, painted everything, and put the new pads in. I barely had ANY brakes at all when I went for my test drive. I did the ol' REVERSE, BRAKE, REVERSE, BRAKE trick trying to sinch up the rear drums.

(how the hell do you get to those rear shoes anyway? I almost pulled an axle out trying to figger them out!!!)

Still nothing after that, We bled the brakes....nothing....the brakes don't leak from the Master Cylinder, but I'm thinking that the MC is the source of my slop. I drove the truck all the way back to Waco, and not much else since. I just took it out about an hour ago and it stopped OK, but the mush in the pedal still exists, atleast no more squeal and shimmy!

Can anyone help with this? Thanks

 

You do have to pull the shafts to take the rear apart. If your MC was fine before but soft now, you probably need to bleed some more. These things are tough to bleed all the way. I went so far as to jack up each side of the truck while bleeding, to get the air to move. Replacing the rubber lines may help too. I think they tend to flex more when they get old. Some guys have had problems with the lining too.

 

Redleg is on the mark . . .

You did measure the thickness of the rotors after you cut them? I was amazed at how much had worn off mine -- they were way under when I took them off without ever seeing a lathe.

 

did you actually take any connections loose? (new calipers? off to paint them?)

If not you did not need to bleed and would not have any air in the system unless you caused a crack in the rubber lines by leaving the calipers hanging by them or something like that

Did you check to see if the rotors were in spec after cutting? Too thin and you'll have poor pedal and no stopping.

As above, you have to take the axle out to get the rear drum off. You also need a big 2 3/16" ??? socket to get the jam nut loose.\

You could just try cranking them up though without taking them apart, you can get to the adjuster through the slot on the back side of the backing plate

 

my 93 is the same way. I have not had the rotors turned yet but they need to be. Also when pushing on the pedel sometimes the e-brake and ABS light will come on then go off after I take my foot off the brake. It seems like the pedel will move 3 or 4 inches before it starts to grab and then its like I hit a hard spot and even if I push harder it does not stop much better.
DM01

 

The rotors were in spec after the lathe. I bled the brakes just to make sure there was no air in the lines, but it didnt change anything. My parking brake has never worked, I replaced the cable and tried to adjust it, but it will barely hold the truck on a slight incline on the last click closest to the floor, and it won't release without me holding the release handle and pulling the cable under the truck.

My front brakes are dialed in, it's the rears and MC that I'm wondering about. The MC is only $20.00 at O'reilly, so it might be worth a shot. But I'm going to tackle the rears first.

 

Texas, with the e brake malfunctions, I'd say your rear brakes are way loose, either out of adjustment or used up