Stupid rear brakes locked up!
 

Driving home tonight come to a stop sign, attempt to go, there was clunk from the rear brakes and the truck wouldnt move forward. Goes in reverse though, thats how i got it to side of road, but wont go forward, unless i want to burn the clutch out, it also wont roll in neutral. Now its gotta get towed here so i can take off drums to have a look. Any ideas or help?

I got an idea, Don't tow it, Drive it in reverse. haha jk, unless its close to your house.

How cold is it where you are at? I'm guessing quite chilly as you are in BC. This happened to me once in the cold at work. When it got cold outside my E-Brake would stick. I could go in reverse but not forwards. Backed the truck into the shop and let it sit for about half an hour and all was good.

LOL thats funny, the thought actually crossed my mind as I was only a couple blocks away. I decided I better not, haha.

And yea its pretty damn cold here, and its been raining ice for 2 days, everything is ice. I wonder if this had something to do with it?? Everything was fine until today.
Its back in the garage now and its just one drum that is locked up. But there is a definate clunk then lock-up when I attempt to drive forward after driving in reverse. Something's making a thump back there and Im guessing a shoe or some spring broke. My "buddy" worked on that drum when we were setting up the brakes about a month ago, maybe he was trying to kill me or maybe he's just dumb..Orrrr it could be just frozen, we'll see tomorrow.

Sounds to me like something came loose and is wedging itself between the rotor and something within the brake parts. I've seen a de-laminated brake shoe do this before.

Rich

Rich, the rear brakes have drums, NOT rotors!

Not long after my brakes did the little lock up skit one of my shoes became de-laminated.

Same thing happend to my ranger... had to put it in 4wd sometimes to break the shoes loose from the drums...

When i finally got time to get the drums off the shoes were not connected to the backing anymore.. and it was metal on metal.. and since it was so cold out, they just froze together...

Also make sure your adjusting plugs are in place.. because if water, snow, or ice gets in there it can also hurt the braking

Hey guys took the drums off today and what happend is one of the adjusting cable springs came unhooked on the driver side. I hooked it back up but it still doesnt seem right, there is slack in the cable and it easily slides of the guide thing so I know its going to come unhooked again.

So I took the other drum apart(passenger side) to compare and there is tension in that cable so I went and bought a kit with a new cable, springs and adjuster, installed it and THERES STILL slack in the cable. I went back and forth comparing it to the passenger side and its set up exactly the same, everything is hooked up right, but for some reason my driver side adjuster cable is still loose.

Starting to get pissed off I started wiggling the shoe setup back and forth up to see if something wasnt right and then I noticed something. There is fluid leaking out of one end of the wheel cylinder! And its on the same side as the adjuster cable. So now the only thing I can think of is that since the cylinder is leaking its not pushing out and keeping pressure on the rear shoe which would put tension on the adjuster cable right?... Im just guessing as I am not much of a mechanic but does this sound like what is happening??

If anyone knows anything about brakes I would be glad to hear your opinion if you think its the wheel cylnder or not causing this problem. Im about to head down and buy new cylinders but will be really stumped if that doesnt fix the problem...

i'm not a mechanic, but you just pretty much said the problem, im with you on the cylinders, give it a shot.

Yhea replace the wheel cyl. and see what happens.

A leaking wheel cylinder SHOULDNT keep the brakes on... But if its leaking, then it needs replaced anyways.. not sure what your talking about with slack though... maybe take some pictures.. i dont think you have your cable on right, that goes from the top (behind the springs) and around the curved piece and down to the star adjuster

It is possible he didn't replace the returnn spring with the right ones. Those springs have specific tension depicted by color. Ur brakes didn't "freeze" they simple were wrapped into the drums. this only happens in forward motion. Like i said before i knew a guy whose brakes started on fire cuz the anchor point and all the spring broke in an impressive brake stand. The shoes were free to move and got sucked into the drums.
As for the wheel cylinder yea there cheap but i'd prolly try pushing it back together and see if it still leaks. the pistons in the cylinder prolly just over extended. and fautly wheel cylinder under not circumstances will lock up ur brakes.

Miscommunication. Im not saying that the leaking cylinder,itself, caused the lock-up. It was the adjuster cable that came un-hooked from the lever(due to the slack in cable) and I think that either caused the shoe to get wedged in the drums or maybe even the cable itself got hung up.
So Im guessing maybe the faulty cylinder isnt keeping proper pressure to push out on the rear-most shoe which might be why there is slack in the cable because when I extend the shoe out by hand it takes away the slack in the cable. So it seems like the piston is weak and and not pushing out on the shoe and tightening the cable. Again Im just speculating.

I do know that the cable is hooked up right though, Its done exactly like you said, behind the springs, around the guide(curved piece)and hooked on the lever that touches the star adjuster. I compared with the other side and its the same. But theres slack in the cable on the screwed up side, meaning I can actually pull the cable over and off the guide with just my finger, which causes it to unhook from the lever below.

I attempted to replace the cylinder today but the dumbass kid at the parts store gave me the wrong cylinder, (the brakeline inlet didnt match up). Apparently there are 2 types for the 10" brakes, go figure. Im attempting again tomorrow when the right cylinder gets here. If that if doesnt solve the problem I'll get some pics for you guys.

That rounded piece that the cable runs around has a ridge on the back side of it around the hole. That ridge has to be in the hole of the brake shoe so it (the rounded metal piece) sits tight to the shoe. (It acts as sort of a bushing)If not the it will have enough play to cause the cable to be loose. At first glance it will look like the other side that is installed correctly.
I had this happen on my '98 and took a few min. of looking to see it when the cable did dot have any tension on it.

I mis-spoke and meant to say drum. Thanks for pointing out my mistake. I appreciate it very much that you seek out my posts, and go over them with a with a microscope to correct me on every little thing I say.
My life is so much better for it. As is this the point of this thread and everyone who reads it.

Thanks, "STALKER BOB"

Your very welcome Rich! I'm sure you wouldn't want to mislead somebody
by posting incorrect information! Afer all, there is a huge difference in a brake drum, and a brake rotor.

Man! Sometimes these threads get so convoluted! I think you are on the right track with your idea that the 'leaking cylinder- no pressure' caused reduced tension in the cable which allowed the shoe to come unhooked. You might as well change it out and see how things tighten up, right? Gotta do it anyway. I can see how an unhooked, displaced shoe could jam things up back there and reversing would obviously free it back up. Good luck.

LOL, absolutely UNREAL how you nailed this Doug!! At first I didnt even understand what you were saying. But after I replaced the wheel cylinder and still had the problem and just about gave up, I came back and read your post more closely, and then I took apart the brake and found this "ridge" around the hole that you were talking about. SURE ENOUGH it wasnt in seated properly in the hole on the shoe, therefore it was just slopping around, leaving slack in the cable, even though from looking at it from the front, it looked right.

So my well-intentioned friend that so "kindly" put my brakes together for me about a month ago got one side right but screwed up on the other, and it just finally popped loose. I guess this explains why ever since he did my brakes, I have had a thumping noise sometimes when I braked hard. UGHHHH what an IDIOT I AM for not putting this together in the first place!!

THE MORAL OF THIS STORY: Dont let your friend drink the case of beer you bought him for doing your brakes until AFTER he finishes the work!!

I cant believe all this trouble over something so stupid. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU DOUG!! for figuring this out... Now excuse me I have to go phone my "buddy" and let him know what kind of beer I drink!! :party:

Glad I could help. Sorry I could not explain it better.

No need to apologize, it made perfect sense once I was holding that curved piece in my hand....Thanks again man!