Hi everyone, it's been awhile since I've posted or worked on my truck. And of course as soon as I do, I have issues! The joy of owning a 30 year old truck! I decided to overhaul my brakes before a trip up to Charlotte yesterday. It turned out to be a bigger job than I anticipated...

I had some issues with the hubs, but with the help of a few searches on here and Youtube I managed in the end. I had the rotors turned which has solved the major issue of vibration/pulsing under heavy braking. I planned on overhauling the calipers, but I damaged the pistons removing them, so I had to get re-manufactured ones. New pads too. So all good up front.

In the back I changed the cylinders, hardware, shoes and got new drums... Very easy compared to the front. Except the adjusting lever on the RR isn't catching the adjusting wheel. I've checked the shop manual as Haynes doesn't have much on that and diagnosis is reasonably simple... replace the hardware, which is what I'll do tomorrow. I guess expecting something which is brand new to work is too much to ask!

I tried adjusting the rears anyway, thinking that at least the LR would. Backed up a bunch of times as directed, don't know if it did much...

Of course I bled the brakes first. And again after trying to adjust the brakes as the pedal was still spongy with loads of travel. I haven't been able to fix that, which is my issue and cry for help...

Would the rears not being adjusted cause the excessive pedal travel? Essentially there's nothing for the first two inches, then the stopping power comes through in the last inch. So if I mash the pedal to the floor it stops fine, all or nothing kind of thing. The pedal did not have this much travel before. Two inches max, with braking increasing gradually immediately.

On a side note. I think the old rotors and drums had some serious drag. I got 17 MPG avg yesterday driving there and back. 57-60 MPH going and 62-65 coming back with some flatpack furniture in the back! That's up from my previous best of 15.5 MPG running down to Savannah at 55!

Thanks for reading and any advice is much appreciated.

 

You have me dusting off the cobwebs; but in my experience, yes. It may be possible you have something else going on, but I'd put the crosshairs on this problem first and then see what you have.

 

Yes, the rear drums being out of adjustment will cause excessive pedal travel. You need to adjust them manually first. Half the time the auto adjusters don't work anyway.

Jack the truck up, and get a brake adjustment tool or a screwdriver can work. Take the rubber plug out of the bottom of the backing plate, and turn the adjuster till you can't budge the tire/wheel. Then go the other way til it starts turning again, but you can still feel it rubbing in places. Do both sides this way, you should be ready to go.

If you have brake dragging problems in the rear, then check your parking brake cables, they are probably rusted and froze, a very common problem with these trucks.

 

Thank you both. Sorry, I can't rep you Dave...

Adjusted the rears and now the brakes are awesome! I planned on replacing the parking brake adjusting parts and had those already. Stupidly expensive though... Changed those today as well. Now it's all working like new. Will post some pics in my other thread.

 

^ That's great news.

And I rep'd him on your behalf.