Alright guys, I can't stay away, last night I lost everything to the brakes, turns out i was low on fluid oddly enough, so i threw some in and most of the braking power came back, however....it only lasted 3 blocks, luckily it was at my house when i lost them, what causes can their be for me to be loosing fluid that fast? I havent done much checking around....where should i check first.

 

Check the back side of each wheel. Wheel cylinders can spring a leak and it will be obvious. The back wheels will leak and stain the back of the drum. The front wheels will leak and stain... something. Then poke around your master cylinder and the distribution block (do these trucks even have one? I don't know...)

Probably the master cylinder. But that should be obvious enough.

-Matt

 

Park it on concrete, fill the reservoir, pump the brakes and look for spots on the ground to determine what half of the truck you need to look at first. It could be leaking out of the master cylinder back into the brake booster. Check the bottom of the booster for fluid.

 

my bet is the line on the driver side frame rail behind the fuel tank.

 

That's where mine went bad

 

If you have someone to pump the brakes for you, fill it up with fluid and have them pump away. Look around the brake lines underneath. If a line is broken, you'll most likely see the drip, or spray out of the line.

Its possible that a leaky rear wheel cylinder won't show up right away as it may take a little while for the fluid to soak through all the rust and dust on the backing plates. Check right at the bottom of the backing plate and/or through the adjustment port. You may have to remove the drum to see it.

I'll third the line as its passing by the gas tank. I had a line there blow on my ranger and judging from the crappy looking replacement line next to the factory line, the previous owner replaced it on my current truck.

 

Turns out it was a combination of the following:

AIr in the lines, wheel seals, broken line, wheel cylinders...

I replaced all of them today and man....them brakes never worked so great in my life lol.

 

lucky......i wish my brakes worked good when i replaced everything in my brake system.