well , 3 weeks ago I did a brake job on the rear . right down to the backing plate , replaced everything . wheel cylinders were leaking . rear starts hopping pretty good when I apply pedal now . still hopping . next I took it to a local national chain shop and they put 4 new 215 75 R14's on and balanced and aligned . asked him to check my work; especially since I haven't worked on a vehicle since the 80's . when he pulled the left rear drum off the long skinny spring that runs between the shoes at the bottom , in front of the star wheel adjuster - was off and loose . he reattached it . he said everything looked good but the left side was not adjusted up enough . I watched him adjust it up until the drum got close to not spinning and he backed it off a bit- just like I thought I had done it . moving.on .
so, still bouncing when I brake.
when I was working on the left rear I could hear a little bearing noise and it was a bit stiff and I could see tiny metal flakes on the back of the spindle and axle . so , next I put in new bearings , seal and a new axle . still bouncing/hopping .
next , put in new u joints . still bouncing .
took to local shop- ( different shop; closer to home ) . looked it over ; didn't call me at 1:30 as planned . called at 4ish . told me he looked it all over and I hadn't lubed the backing plate where the shoe rides and moves. oh yeah . I forgot that little detail. told me the left rear shoes were drastically under adjusted. told him I watched the guy adjust them up . can't figure out why they were not adjusted right . also said the pads were in upside down on the front and the squeal indicators wouldn't work like that . don't know who did that . also told me a pin , maybe he meant cup wasn't releasing because it had never been lubed so the pad wasn't moving back away from the rotor. said I still have plenty of pad left. so, paid him $ 231.36 and still hopping.
each time I made an improvement in the parts I replaced it took a couple of miles of driving for the hopping to really come back full force . I expect he only drove it a short distance. he said well it's not cured it still does it some but I think you just got a bad, out of round set of drums. I would just drive it the way it is .

I finally got in touch with a friend who lives across the country who knows a lot more than I do . he filled me in on proportion valves. . when I research that , the symptoms seem to match up to me.

so I called a friend today who owns his own shop who I trust; he's just not had an opening in his schedule for me . and I was in a hurry to get things done . he told me he wouldn't think it was the proportion valve but rather I've got something wrong in the drums/ brakes.

I'm going out in the morning and pull the drums off again and take a look at everything .take a picture of the brakes . and send them to my buddy who has the shop. he did say he might be able to get me in next week . so in the meantime .... I'll take another look . seems like if I have the shoes reversed on the backing plate 1 of the 2 guys who worked on the truck would have caught that .

any experience / thoughts would be appreciated .

 

Welcome to the forum

You should include the year of your Ranger and engine size, manual or auto, maybe 2WD or 4x4 with question

1998 2.3l

First, hold out e-brake release handle and pump the pedal until it feels tight and not going down farther, this adjusts the Star Wheels on both sides to exactly where they should be, applies to all vehicles with e-brakes, not just Rangers
You can NOT over-adjust them this way, so do it until your satisfied

Now, in a parking lot or empty side street get up to say 25-30mph and hold out the E-brake release handle and use only the e-brake pedal to slow down and stop
Repeat a few times, the more the better
This gets the brake shoe material to match drum curve, in the old days there was a machine that ground off the material to match drum curve, but newer shoes are much better at already matching the curve, but not always perfect, lol

Hopping could be some parts of shoe are touching drum when brakes are applied but not the full shoe
And its all FREE

Do you have 4WABS, 4 wheel ABS?

If not then you have RABS, rear wheel ABS
In either case these are the proportioning valves
That and the Master
In the Master there are two chambers with brake fluid, the front brake line coming out goes to the rear brakes
The rear line on the Master goes to the front brakes
The Master "acts" like a proportioning valve

 

98 is 2.3 !? everybody at auto parts says 2.5. nobody ever mentioned a 2.3 . I wouldn't know. I'm not Ranger savvy. thanks for the heads up .

ok, so, 98 Ranger XLT .rear wheel drive , 2.3 , 5 speed manual .

Ron ; I wanted to check some stuff in my owners manual and looked at my original sales receipt and it's telling me this truck is 2.5 with anti seize brakes on rear; doesn't mention front . front has disk . I looked all over ,last week for abs cables etc. and don't find any anywhere up front, so I don't believe the front are abs . are anti seize the same as ABS ? for the rear ? Thanks a lot for your extensive reply , I really appreciate it . have'nt had a chance to do as you suggested yet . raining right now. Florida .

my buddy who owns the shop told me to take rear drums off and send him some pix . hope to do that tomorrow . that's since he can't see me till at least next week . thank you again . I'll post back when something develops .

I have a question . the codes say this truck has a open 7.5 rear end with 3.45 gears. where can I go to find out the OEM backing plate size ? are all 7.5's 9" and all 8.8's 10" ?

 

Yes, 2.5l, my mistake, but exactly the same engine as the 1989-1997 2.3l, so not related to your question

 

I found this image - here on the forum ; but I found it by googling 98 ranger drum brake images . here is the original post- https://www.ranger-forums.com/genera...-brakes-64373/ . so, the skinny spring on the bottom - I had it backwards from left to right . Turned it around and no more bouncing , hopping or anything . small detail , big impact .

 

Good work, thanks for the update and THE FIX
It will help someone else down the road

 

next- front rotors , bearings , pads and bleed system