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Soft Brakes on 1/2 ton

Woody35

Woody35

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on to the next problem. when i got the truck it had spongy brakes. so one weekend i planned to bleed the brakes. broke a bleeder screw off drum cylinder in rear and bleeder screw on front caliper. replaced it all bled the brakes. did rear tires first then front right then front left so i ended up with bleeding the closest brake to the master cylinder last.

i bled the brakes 4 times until no bubbles came out. i also replaced old brake fluid with new stuff. well after i finished and put the tires back on i took the truck for a test drive. the spongy feeling was gone but the brakes were soft and i could almost put the brake to the floor. it stops well enough that it is not a danger but it doesnt stop close to what other trucks ive drove stop at.

well there are no leaks under the truck and im 99% postive there is no air in the system.also the shoes and pads are good and should last for a while. what could be causing this problem and why. thanks guys.
 
I have heard you need a scanner to open the ABS ports up to properly bleed. Not sure if its true.

The other thing to mention is make sure your rear brakes are adjusted.

No pedal hight usually maens rears are out of adjustments.
 
my uncle has a fancy 4 grand OBDII scanner so im going to ask him and hook up my truck to it if that is true. how do you adjust drum brakes
 
There was something I read on this brake problem also. You can update to ss lines up front and it seems to make the brakes feel like bran new.:D
 
At the bottom of the backing plate there is a punchout, remove the plug and you see a star-wheel in there. Jack up oen side, and adjust that just until you feel drag. Jack up other side and repeat.
 
Matt Bachand said:
At the bottom of the backing plate there is a punchout, remove the plug and you see a star-wheel in there. Jack up oen side, and adjust that just until you feel drag. Jack up other side and repeat.
Click to expand...

Not on some 1/2 tons. My Tahoe doesn't have it. The adjuster is nestled up on top of the backing plate IIRC. There is no way to manually adjust them once the drum is on. all you can do is carnk them out as much as possible with drum off and then operate parking brake to take up the rest. FYI to my knowledge you should not need any scan tool. I have replaced brakes on mine and never needed however if brakes are not in adjustment you will have a hard time getting the air bled out.
 
On non external adjust types I've always just adjusted them out until the drum just lightly drags after it's on. One note with that, make sure you clean the rust lip off the outer edge where the shoe doesn't contact the drum.
 
the other way(lazy I admit) to set them up is to get the fairly close and back up and keep taping the brakes. every time you tap them the adjuster moves up a notch until they're right. you gotta be fairly close when you first set them up to do it this way.

ON EDIT:
Make sure the adjusters are nice and free moving when you do this job or it will come back to haunt you.
 
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