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Brake system woes

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Old May 27, 2010 | 07:03 PM
  #1  
97F250LD4X's Avatar
97F250LD4X
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Brake system woes

Havent been able to get my brakes right for some time now,and now im determined (with the help of you all of course). I just replaced the front rotors with new ones and installed fresh pads up front.

Ive owned the truck about 5 years and when I got it, I replaced the front brakes. Somehow I got distracted and left the cap off the Master cylinder and drove it like that for a few days. Ive bled the wheels like crazy and still have a very spongy low pedal. Im guessing I have air in the master...

How do I bleed that out?





Also in the back im experiencing troubles.Its got drum brakes and the hold downs for the shoes are something ive never seen before. Looks like they require a special tool. Is that the case?

I did the rears and managed without a special tool but it was a total pain,and I donnt want to do it again like that if it requires some sort of tool.

The brake adjuster cables on both sides in the rear have broken and so im basically running on only the front brakes. Can anyone tell me the best way to work with the hold downs on the rear brakes so I can replace those cables and get this thing safe again?

Anyone have a blowup/illustration of the rears so I can figure out how to do them?
 
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Old May 27, 2010 | 09:59 PM
  #2  
Ultramagdan's Avatar
Ultramagdan
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Leaving the cap off has introduced a lot of bad stuff into your system. Moisture would be the worst one. I would get a vacuum bleeder and bleed the entire system. They are not that expensive and beats pumping the brakes to bleed it.

My 98 has the drum brakes and I didn't think it was that bad to change the things out but then you can see why everything is going to disc brakes. Drums can be a pain. I used a small screwdriver to move the adjuster when I last did mine.
 
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