1989 rear brakes not working?

[bryanb]

See: http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96395 ...resurrecting an old topic.

Finally got around to bypassing the RABS valve. spliced a line in place of the RABS valve, but left the electrical connecter plugged in. Bled the rear brakes.

Had the rear end jacked up, and hit the brakes. Didn't seem to make much difference. The real test would be to see how it performs this winter....


I guess Im wondering how to tell if there is enough pressure at the rears, and they are activating correctly when I hit the pedal. Right now, if I hold the brakes quite hard, probably much more than it'd make to stop on dry pavement normally, the back wheels will stop.

 

[Mark_88]

Maybe try adjusting them a bit more with the star wheel...they should provide about 30% of your braking power when working properly, but the fronts do most of the work.

You could also do the backup auto adjust. Find an open stretch of road and stop, back up at about 30 mph and hammer on the brakes. This will do the same as adjusting the star wheel manually.

 

[pillen140]

dont be a sissy, i do it at a buck forty!

 

[Mark_88]

LOL...my truck won't go that fast forward...

 

[bryanb]

I'll drive it around a bit, and backup to adjust.

Both drums were fitting very closely to the shoes, which is hasn't done in the past, when the adjusters were known to not work. I mean, the adjusters were known to not work in the past, and the drums were fitting real loosly over the shoes. Now they are quite 'tight', the shoes are right there, where they 'should be' (I suppose), and it takes a fair amount of wiggling to get them to come off.

I did put it in drive while the rear was on jack stands, and I had to hit the brakes awful hard to get the back passenger side to lock. Went in reverse a couple times, thinking it'd do the same as backing up to adjust them, and the right side, the open half of the diff, seemed to be a little better, but still not impressive.... The driver's side seem to stop fairly quickly.

 

[Mark_88]

When I first installed new brake lines etc on my truck I had a heck of a time getting the rear brakes to work properly. The fronts were a bit spotty too and then I did a thorough check on all the joints I put in when bleeding didn't bring up the brake pressure.

Turned out that I had a few weak joints that were leaking...this caused the bleeding to be ineffective and no amount of adjustment would have helped. Once I sealed all the joints they came up perfect after a quick bleed. Have been driving it now for two years without having to adjust the brakes once.

So...maybe double check any joints you may have put in to bypass the RABS...if adjusting doesn't help, that is.

 

[bryanb]

When I first installed new brake lines etc on my truck I had a heck of a time getting the rear brakes to work properly. The fronts were a bit spotty too and then I did a thorough check on all the joints I put in when bleeding didn't bring up the brake pressure.

Turned out that I had a few weak joints that were leaking...this caused the bleeding to be ineffective and no amount of adjustment would have helped. Once I sealed all the joints they came up perfect after a quick bleed. Have been driving it now for two years without having to adjust the brakes once.

So...maybe double check any joints you may have put in to bypass the RABS...if adjusting doesn't help, that is.

When I was bleeding, I obviously did the rear passenger wheel first, and it had a little air in it, at first, and a few cycles of pushing the brake pedal, and loosening the bleed screw, a couple BIG bubbles. and that was it. The drivers side didn't really have any air in it. My friend that was helping musta went through 20 or so cycles looking for air. I did dump more brake fluid in the master cylinder a couple times too....

I made little plugs to put over the cut lines out of some fish tank air tubing, so they weren't hanging out draining fluid, and getting air in, while I wasn't actively connecting two lines together.