Hello. I am about to dive into the brakes as they are soft to the floor.
New to me 1984 302 2wd F150 Auto/OD

I do not see any obvious signs of leakage but I haven't started digging (i.e. take off the tires/ rotors/ drums). The front reservoir on the Master Cyl was almost empty (rear brakes yes?) but the truck came with an open brake fluid in the toolbox so I'm thinking this was an ongoing issue (leak).

Before I start this adventure, and not being a Ford truck owner before, are there any quirks, special things I should have an eye out for?
Being Florida, I am also going to bet the lines will need to be replaced. Do we know offhand the hard lines size?

Thank you all in advance.

 

My brakes didnt need new hardlines, so I'm not sure the size on those. I will say that I went through several boosters before I actually got a good one, so I personally would avoid cardone brand. (I had 3 bad ones in a row). My truck is a 82 F100 and I have the smaller style breaks (10" instead of the typical 11's). I found a pair of drilled rotors at https://www.r1concepts.com/ for the same price as standard rotors everywhere else. I'm guessing you have the standard 11" style and may be able to find some cheaper than I did, but I do really like the ones I have now.

 

The brake lines are 3/16". Standard pre-flared lines at the store use 3/8-24 nuts on 3/16 line. That works everywhere except sometimes to the master cylinder and sometimes on one of the fittings on the tee at the rearend housing. If you run across that you will have to save the old nut, cut the new nut off the new line, install the old nut, and then double flare the line again.

I usually use 3 pre-flared lines to get to the rear. I use one long line to go behind the fuel tank, and then couple that to a short line up front to get to the proportioning valve, and a short line to the rear to get to the rubber line going to the rearend. Get the copper nickel lines, they fish through the frame almost like electrical wire. Very easy to work with and will not rust.

 

Thing with metal lines is like the rubber hoses you cant tell they are going to blow all the time because they rust from the inside out.

I would get a coil of copper nickel brake line, a small tube cutter and a double flare tool and run new lines.
You will need to get a hand full of nut fittings or reuse your old ones.
Replace all the rubber hoses, 2 up front at the wheels and 1 out back from frame to rear axle.

After you pull the drums pull back the rubber cups on the wheel cyl. to see if they are wet if so replace.
I would most likely just replace them so you know they are good. Front calipers its your call to replace or not?
Only thing left would be the master and I would replace it.

That would take care of the wet side of the brakes.
Once apart do you want to reuse the drums & hardware or go new? I would replace the shoes so you know you are set for a while.
Front brakes do you just replace the pads and the pads & rotors?

At this point the brakes other than the booster is new and should not need anything for a long time.
On my 81 F100 I reused the front rotors as they looked new as did the metal lines but everything else was replaced even the booster & master as they turned out to be bad.
I should not need to do anything to the brake system for a bit.
Dave ----

ps when I road tested my truck 1 side of the master was also empty and they had no fluid.
When I pulled the drums had missing hardware and both short shoes on 1 side and long on the other.
It was a mess!

 

I appreciate the heads-up/ help. I will be digging into it this weekend so we'll see how it goes.
Wondering how the rotors and drums look, but yes, planning on new pads (unless super good already), new rubber connections, wheel cylinders, plus new master cyl as it looks corroded at the top seal and I'll inspect those hard lines.

Assuming DOT3 Brake Fluid? (Gotta find a manual still).

Thanks again!

 

After replacing the master cylinder, plan on doing a full pressure bleed of the system. More details here:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-bleeding.html


Resist the temptation to think all will be fine with a regular bleeding by cycling the brake pedal. The link explains how that doesn't fully purge the lines between the MC and the pressure differential valve. You might think it won't matter, but it really does.

 

Go to NAPA, buy all the brake parts and lines from them. They are local and can help when things go bad.

Yes, I also had to go through a few brake boosters to get a good one. Make sure you bench bleed the new master cylinder before you install it.

NAPA will have NiCop lines which are easy to bend by hand and have both nuts and ends flared. Just measure the old line and buy what's close to it.

The brakes on these trucks are easy to work on.

I also bought a Motive Power bleeder. Got dot 3 from Walmart. $7. for a qt. Make sure you can break the bleeders loose before if your not replacing the calipers or wheel cylinders. PB Blaster is good, or spend more $$ for https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C...w=1280&bih=881

 

While nice, that fancy pressure bleeder is not required to get good brakes. While I would not mind having a pressure bleeder, I still don't have one and always just get someone to pump the pedal while I am working the bleeders. Gravity bleeding will make the pedal pushing episode quicker/less time consuming.

 

The power bleeder gets all the old fluid out quicker.

 

+10 on the copper nickel lines, best thing since sliced bread.
One nice thing about that vintage truck is brake parts are not expensive. If in doubt just replace it.

 

Ok, so... the front rotors have almost no pads on the driver side, and the pass side is meh... I'm in it so I guess I'll swap the rotors while I'm here; however, it looks like there are bearing that need replacing when you do this? Inner & outer? So, do I have to grease these or are they plug and play (if so, grease type?) ?

Side note: with the wheels off, it only looks like the Rear Driver side has any braking force... I'm thinking these lines are full of air... I'm gonna see what bleeding them looks like in the morning to see if that part of the issue before I even swap the Master Cyl or do anything else. No obvious signs of leakage.

Thank you

 

Not sure if you are saying the front pads are evenly worn. If not 3 things to check: You will have to push the caliper pistons back in to install new pads, is one stuck? The calipers also need to slide freely on their guide pins. A rubber brake line could be collapsed from the inside. If it were me I would buy 2 "loaded" calipers, they come preinstalled with new guide pins, also 2 rubber brake lines along with the rotors. The rotors have inner and outer tapered roller bearings along with a inner grease seal. The best thing is to wash them thoroughly with mineral spirits and blow them off with compressed air, then inspect the rollers for pitting. If they are bad new bearings come with races which you drive out with a punch and then install with a special driver. Either way you pack the bearings with the proper grease, you can do this by hand and get new seals.

The rear pass. side wheel cyl. is probably frozen. All of this front and rear will cause a low/soft pedal along with improper adjustment on the rear shoes, clean and lubricate the rear self adjusters.

PARTS LIST: 2 new rotors, calipers and hoses, 2 whl. cyls. and brake shoes and maybe new front bearings and seals. None of this is all that expensive and you will be good to go for a long time. Hope this helps. Brian

 

Most new rotors come with new races fro the bearings.
If your old bearings are good after a good cleaning you can reuse them but you need to repack them with wheel bearing grease.
You can get a small tub of wheel bearing grease at any parts store.
Do a search on Youtube on how to repack wheel bearings by hand, it not hard to do.

When you get the new rotors also get 2 new wheel seals and after you install the repacked inner bearings then install the seals and put a little WB grease on the lip of the seal so it does not run dry when installed.
Dave ----

 

I have to agree with the Parts List in post #12. Do it right, the first time. The total cost of the parts is cheap, compared to a brake failure.

 

In the limited time I get to do anything...

The Brake lines look great and I found a slow leak from the rear pass wheel cylinder. That whole drum was frozen but not so bad I couldn't remove with a few love taps. Funny thing is, the drum(s) did not look unevenly worn or anything. However, they are rusty as heck and NAPA is doing 20% off so I am just going to buy the new drums and be done with it.

Front rotors were better than I initially thought, thick and not grooved as I thought when looking visually (light rust was misleading). The pads have now been changed and the caliper cylinders felt good. One weird thing was the pass caliper had this arched metal strip on the bottom rest to help keep the caliper in place (I guess), but the driver side did not and that one was tight. They didn't seem to have the pins I saw in a video, it was more a sliding piece at the bottom that aligned with a bolt to tighten.

Anyway, it's been 20yrs since doing drums... should be fun.