Hello all,
Just bought a 69 f100 with a 240 and 3 on the tree.
only major issue is I have break fluid running down my tires after driving it, do I need to tear into em and figure out whats wrong or do yall have an idea on what could be wrong?
Appriciate it.

 

FIRST it's Brakes
probably just a wheel cylinder , you can get new ones for under $20 at local Auto parts, you probably will need brake shoes too as they are contaminated with fluid

 

Same thing happened to my truck the second day of ownership. It will be best to COMPLETELY go through the brakes --new shoes, wheel cylinders, return springs, adjusters, new flexible brake hoses, new MC, get the drums turned and flush the system with fresh brake fluid.

 

What if he breaks his brake while braking? Does he then get to take a break? Or if his break isn't long enough can he take a longer break? or should he just fix his brake?

 

After my brakes broke, I had to unbreak the brakes because broken brakes are no fun but, I did a lot of work unbreaking the brakes by bead blasting and painting parts before I reassembled everything. Since this was a drawn out process of unbreaking the broken brakes, there were times I would stop long enough to take a break while working on the brakes.

Now, my brakes work great and I can break as long as I want.

 

I've never felt so broken..... whats a rough cost estimate on the new drum, shoes, Wheel cylender, and springes?

 

I redid all four brakes right after I bought my truck in April, 2011. I didn't total up the tickets but, I would say I probably was in the $500.00 range replacing all the parts --this also included new wheel bearings and wheel seals in the front and new axle bearings, seals and gaskets in the rear.

I got rid of my front drums last year and swapped them out for a complete disc brake/I-beam front suspension from a '77 F100.

If you're thinking of going with discs on the front, this might be a good time to gather the parts from a '75-'79 Ford donor truck to put on.

 

Your making this to easy. I won't go any further but wait, springes? are you actually going to use a noose fastened to an elastic body to catch small game?
Sorry couldn't resist. Don't mind me, I keep myself entertained this way. If I don't I'll be in a padded room somewhere talking to myself.
Just roll with it, you'll be fine. There's a lot of fart smellers (errr, fart fellers, errr, (SPELL CHECK) Ok I'm back) on here willing to help.

 

under $100, parts for these trucks are inexpensive (most of the time)

 

I also say completely go through the system. Brakes are your life. And maybe someone else's. 2X on the disc brakes. Now would be a good time for front disc brakes.

 

Welcome to FTE, btw.

Not trying to beat up on you, everyone is trying to impress upon you the importance of the braking system.

Now, first let's be realistic - a 50 year old truck is going to need a LOT of maintenance and repair to make it roadworthy. There's no way around this and anyone should realize this going in. This is one reason why restored, stock trucks are such a good value - the person who sells generally cannot come even close to getting their time and money back out of it upon sale.

Brakes on these are a problem to do piecemeal or a little bit at a time because it's a sealed system and they are just so old and worn out - parts of course can't be replaced without bleeding. Next, maintenance is always done on axle pairs. That is, if one wheel cylinder is leaking, it's considered good practice to replace both of them on that axle. Brake shoes are the same way, one wouldn't replace just one side. Front drums should be the same size diameter, etc. This prevents pulling to one side for example.

Of course, any rubber brake hoses should have long been replaced by now too. Finally - if we 're going to replace all these individual parts, what about taking a jaundiced look at the (by now) corroded hard steel brake lines themselves? Who wants to drive around with all new brake parts, except rusty hard line? It's the prudent thing to replace 50 year old line.

My view is for most people, 4 drum brake systems work just fine, but whatever system used needs new parts and adjusted carefully. If you do the work yourself, a completely new system including master cylinder, hard lines, hoses, cylinders, cast drums, etc etc on all 4 corners would be under $500, labor would double that probably. So around $1200-$1500 depending on where you're at, as a ballpark.

 

Paul Fussell, in his book "Wartime"; commented on the coarsening of culture that all the wars brings. Particularly language. He overheard some Brits working on an aircraft and something unrepairable broke, and the mechanic exclaimed "F***! The F***ing F***ers F***ing F***ed!", and everybody knew exactly what he had meant.

 

As long as the P.O. knows it's all in fun. As you noticed as well as Jeffafa that we emphasized on "BRAKES" in a fun way. Regardless of what we, or should I say "I" said, the most important thing to remember is, fix the "Brakes" no matter how it's spelled.

 

I'm sure to get flack from this but rockauto.com has most of the parts you need at closeout prices. Measure your drums and shoes to get the right parts.

 

'67 F100 front brakes are 11" x 2". Rears are 11" x 1-3/4".

'68-'72 F100 front brakes are 11" x 3". The rears are 11" x 2-1/4". --F100s only came with 4-wheel drums.

Front discs were optionally available on the F250/F350 starting in 1968. Discs on the front didn't come about on the F100s until 1973. Front discs were standard equipment on all '73-'79 F100 through F350 trucks. Power brakes was optional on all.