Hi all, I just bought a '70 F-100 Ranger XLT today for $200, which is a pretty good deal, but the right rear wheel is locked up. The owner says he has no idea what the problem is, but thinks it might be a brake issue. I'm getting it towed home tomorrow, and I'm going to work on it, and hopefully figure out the problem pretty rapidly.

But I'm wondering if this is a common occurrence, and if so, what is usually the problem? The guy thinks that if it isn't in the brakes, its in the differential. Either way, I'm going to be cracking away at it to figure out what the issue is.

 

Most likely the rear brake.

If the rear axle assembly were locked up, either 1.) the pinion would be locked, and the rear wheels would rotate in opposite directions from each other (meaning the pinion & ring gear were locked up), or 2.) the wheels would rotate the same direction, locked to each other (meaning the differential cluster had locked up). It's hard to imagine a rear axle failure that would lock up just one wheel.

Jack it up, take off the wheel, and go into the brake adjusting holes with a brake adjusting tool (or a big screwdriver). Un-ratchet the brake adjuster as far as you can. Smack on the sides of the drum a few times, and try to pull the drum off. It's probably nothing real serious. The adjuster may have gotten over-ratcheted, cooking the shoes. Then, they rusted to the drum. Or, the parking brake cable may have bound up, causing the shoes to drag and cook.

On a truck of that age, you should automatically rebuild the whole brake system, unless you know for sure that parts have been replaced recently. 40 years is a long time. Shoes, springs, wheel cylinders, hoses, and master cylinder all should be replaced. A brake failure can kill people, including you.

 

That was what we figured the issue was. More than likely, since the truck sat for several years before the 2nd owner bought it about a year ago, the brakes corroded and probably got messed up. I'm planning to tear down the rear brakes anyways, and possibly even the front brakes, depending on how bad it looks.

 

Some times you can rock it back and forth or drag it a bit to free up stuck brakes. Prolly can't get the drum off till it's free.






John

 

By the way, I just bought a complete set of new brake lines for my '67 F100. They're all pre-formed with flares and fittings, and ready to bolt in. The whole kit was about $150. That's cheap, when you look at the labor of hand fitting and flaring all those tubes. I bought them through Blue Oval, but the source is Inline Tube in Michigan. They offer the sets is all different combinations: manual drums, power drums, power disks, short bed, long bed, etc. I guess the sets are all custom order, computer designed and CNC bent. It took about three weeks to get them. It continues to amaze me how easy it is to get parts for these old Ford trucks. I had just assumed that I would have to hand make replacement brake lines.

In my case, my '67 F100 is manual drums now, and I'm preparing to do the conversion to power drums. So, I ordered the line kit for power drums, plus I bought a power drum conversion kit (booster, master cylinder, brackets & link) from another source (DansFordTrucks on ebay). I'm going to install all that at the same time. I had previously installed all new wheel cylinders, shoes, etc. When I got to trying to replace the hoses, I found that the line fittings were rounded and ugly. So, I decided to put in all new lines and do the power conversion at the same time. I haven't done it yet. I'll report back on how everything fits.

But, overall, the parts for a complete new brake system has cost me barely $500. That's amazing for a 43 year old truck.

 

That happened on my dad's '77 F-350 and he still drove it...
it wasn't locked up completely, Just on one side...

 

Sometimes depending on the material of the brake shoe it will rust to the drum, I have also had a wheel cylinder blow out and wedge the rod against the cylinder forcing the brake against the drum, but I figure that was a one and a million deal and is rare. My guess is rusted jowilker hit on it.

 

Well, we pulled it off today, and what it was, the grease seal on the axle blew out, flooded the drum with crap, and locked it up tight. Pulled the drum, cleaned it out, and now we're waiting to get paid to put a new seal in. Expected repair cost, with connections, around $100, if that.