Help! Rear Brakes.....

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Sep 12, 2005 | 03:12 PM

F-150 questions

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Help! Rear Brakes.....

last night i jumped in my 1991 f-150 and was headed into town i pulled out of my driveway and proceded down a fairly steep hill, when i touched my brakes to slow down for the stop sign my back brakes locked up and i skidded to a stop after about 20 feet.......i had driven my truck earlier that day went down the same hill and everything and it was fine. any idea why it would do this? also would i just be able to use the adjuster and loosen them a bit? and if so which way do i move the adjuster to loosen?
any help would be apreciated

Thnx in advance

Sep 12, 2005 | 04:46 PM

andym

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From: Bonita Springs FL

I doubt it's the adjustment. You may have a dirty ABS sensor. I'd pull the sensor out of the top of the diff and clean it off with a rag. If that doesn't fix it, you may have a damaged tone ring in the diff, a bad ABS valve, or a bad ABS computer.

I'd lean towards either a dirty sensor or the valve being gummed up.

Sep 12, 2005 | 05:59 PM

handyman43358

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From: West Mansfield, Ohio

From what I've always been told, your rear brakes dont do much as far as stopping except for balancing your truck as your front brakes do most of the work. Is this right? I dont know. It makes sense though considering the rear brakes on my truck have 40 thousand on em and my front ones were changed 15 thousand ago, and the fronts are showin wear again.

Excessive amounts of rust in the drum will get caught between the drum and the shoe, but if this truck is a daily driver i doubt thats it. I agree with andym about the abs sensor.

I would ask how your speedo is working but it has nothing to do with the abs sensor, unlike the 92 and newer models.

Sep 12, 2005 | 08:51 PM

F-150 questions

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thnx for the help guys, i was reading in my manual and it said that to calibrate your rear brakes to back up at 5 mph and then hit the binders, and then to repeat this 4 or 5 times.....i tred this and it seems to have fixed the problem........have you ever heard of this? or will it just happen again? thnx guys

Sep 12, 2005 | 10:15 PM

andym

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From: Bonita Springs FL

It's called 'adjusting' not calibrating and that's the wrong way to do it.

You have to jack the rear end off the ground. Spin each tire and adjust the shoes outward until they lightly drag all the way around. Repeat for the other side.

Sep 13, 2005 | 08:45 PM

Popa Tim

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Joined: Jun 2004

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From: Central NY

Did you use the e-brake that day?
One day mine didn't fully release and I did the same thing

scared the hell out of some old guy driving.

Just under the bed on the driver side, you'll see a metal bracket that splits has one ebrake cable coming from the front and two going to the rear. That bracket should be verticle, if not its easy to figure out which cable is binding up on you. I just gave the bracket a good hard tug to free up my cable. I still need to replace them btw, I'm in no rush.

Also, could it have been condensation? This will cause the brakes to grab too.

Cheers,
Popa Tim