what could becausing spongey breaks on fluffy? it started to do this not to long ago.... i would just have to press the pedal further and i would be able to still stop, but yesterday... while trying to pull onto my street off the highway, i almost crashed into a house at 30 or40 miles per hour due to my breaks going out completly... ive added break fluid to the top but it barrely made anything better.... if i press it all the way to the floor i actually stop a little bit.... and the break fluid is a milky color...

should i bleed the system completly out.....or should i replace my master cylinder?

another question is... how hard would it be to swap from my current master cylinder to a power break?

~the redneck ndn~

 

Spongy brakes on fluffy? You have a pet with brakes?

What, who the heck is a fluffy?

(I can guess...you named your truck fluffy, right?).

LOL!! Where's jowilker when I need him?

Spongy brakes = air in the system, you have a leak somewhere.

Wheel cylinders, master cylinder, brake hoses...something is leaking.

Look at the inside of the tires, any evidence of brake fluid?

The master could be leaking, but it's hard to spot as air blows the leaking fluid away from the master.

Check the two front brakes hoses, the rear brake hose-left rear only on F100's.

 

i would never in my life give my truck such a girl-ie name....


my girlfriend named it... how she came up with fluffy i dont know.... but its better then hearing her say "stupid truck" all the time.... i guess the time i spend playing and tweeking the thing to get the best out of it makes her jealous....

anyways, i tried crawling around and looking for leaks and what not, but didnt notice anything... although at one point and time prior to this all happening, i seen a bit of fluid on my right rear drum...


ive also noticed some of those rainbows you get when you drop some gas or oil on a wet drive way, could that be related to the breaks??? {ive never really played with breakfluid before.... so i dont know if its flameable, or if it makes one of those rainbows after raining....}}

 

You may want to try adjusting the "self-adjusting" brakes manually by turning the star thingy inside the rotor until you hear the brake shoe hit the rotor ever so slightly. The owner's manual says to adjust the brakes by going in reverse several times and apply the brakes. I think you are beyond that point! If you see leaks anywhere, you will want to bypass this step until you replace stuff.

When I got "Mable", the guy I bought it from threw in a master cylinder rebuild kit. It is cheap (basically a spring and a plunger) and very easy to do. That helped, but the real problem was as NumberDummy describes...wheel cylinders were either frozen or leaking. Those things are pretty common at a parts house...I think Ford used the same ones for about 20 years, if I remember correctly. Go ahead and replace that old steel brake line, too. Those lines have a tendency to rust inside and could be blocking flow. If a chunk of rust gets in the new wheel cylinder it could damage it.

I cannot stress this enough...ANYTIME you monkey with those drum brakes, manually adjust the "self-adjusting" brake bit as described above. I skipped this step after changing everything and bleeding the system. I went on a 20 mile trip to the next town and was using first gear and a series of S-turns while pumping up the brakes to stop. Come to find out, one of the self-adjusting thingies had fallen off...NO brakes on that rotor.

 

i agree with ND, i think you have air in the lines. may have been low at one time or another and sucked some air. milky color leads me to believe moisture got in there somehow. water and oil mixed looks milky, you should completely drain the whole system and replace with new, then reset your brakes shoes manualy as in previous posts. if there is no fluid coming from your wheels or wetness showing and you still have no brakes them the master cylidar is toast. either kit it or repalce comepletely. i always replace completely as i have had minimal luck with rebuilds. even with honing they dont seem to have a whole lot of life to them. just my opinion though. Dutch

 

Just another thought on where to check for leaks...there is a little brass distribution connector above the rear axle. I think a rubber line (?) goes into it and the steel lines go to the rear drums from there. That may be leaking.

I'd have to agree with Flyn66...if there has been water in the fluid for very long, the master cylinder may have some pitting in there that a kit won't fix. Actually, if the master cylinder is bad enough, I suppose you could get blow by in the master cylinder without it actually leaking. If it's not pitted on the inside, try a kit.

In any event, the MC seems and full bleeding seems like a good place to start.

 

Those self adjusters were crap when new, they are still crap today.

Usually they only work for a couple of years then give up the ghost.

As Pokey said, they only work when you back up and step on the brake.

Another problem: If one of the cables snaps, the cable guide can get in between the brake shoe and the drum.

When you step on the brakes, you can then kiss the drum and the brake shoe good bye, as the guide will gouge the hell oughtta the drum

 

fluffy, You are calling a full grown Ford truck fluffy. I gotta wash my monitor screen and keyboard.

What are you thinking?


John

 

shes not a full grown truck yet... that little 292... pft you call that full grown? shes just a baby... besides... you know the name tiny gets given to some big guys dont you..... generally about 6'10'' 300 pounds.... or so lol not so tiny now are they?

but yep... i dont think she is fully grown yet... just my opinion, she wont be until the motor is bigger... and maybe some bigger tires, get the baby 15s off and throw some adult 35s on hahaha

anyways, i will try as sudjested.

but also how hard would it be to add power breaks? to increase stoping power from 3 miles away down to 1 mile away... theres a pull-a-part with a few power break fords....

 

Oh I see, ya gots one of them sissy she trucks. Make a nice little box for it to sleep in cause it'll stay on da porch when da big dogs leave.

Give me a break, trucks use brakes.



John

 

she aint a sissy... shes just a baby.... shes still got lots of growing up to do... and im sure both me and the truck would like to grow up together.... those breaks could surely save both of our lifes one day if they where power breaks or dual MC... shes really been eyeing the boat all fishing season, and looking at the fish toats that get to be pretty heavy when loaded with 1000-1500 pounds of fish.... and i think she wants to be able to stop the fish and the boat.... with out taking out a house first...

 

Good luck with the fishing around here you could haul it home in a miata maybe maybe one named oh i don't know, Fluffy!

 

tribal comercial fishing... gil netting....

well it was actually not so great this last month due to ocean trawlers.... no body was doing any good... tribal, sportsmen, or any other tribes around here... but we where still loaded with around 1000 pounds