The Epic saga of the broken brakes.
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On Wednesday before last I went up to get a super sexy Jaguar for scrap. It also came with a lot of tires on rims.
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The guy said it runs. I haven't tried it out yet.
About 2 miles from the house BettyBlue's brakes started to scream. Well not scream. They sounded like a shovel full of gravel in a dryer. It wasn't pleasant.
The next day we went out and tore it apart.
The back brakes were a mess. The parking break pin was sheared off, springs were laying all around. So new springs, slave cylinders, and shoes. They went back together and I went to the front.
I pulled off the drivers side and it didn't look all that bad.
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I went around to the passengers side and things were a bit different.
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It is hard to tell, but the rotor is cracked. We had noticed a slight pull to the right under extremely heavy braking, but only then.
When I tried to pull the rotor off it refused to come. Since the rotor was already FUBAR I got the big hammer out. Turns out the wheel bearing was starting to seize to the spindle. Great.
I sent the wife after new rotors and bearings. I came in. My back was done.
A neighbor called and said his truck was broken down at Walmart. I told him we would take a look at it as soon as BB was running, well, stopping.
Thursday we got back out to work on it. Right off the bat she had the wrong outer bearings. Dammit.
She got back and we put things together. I always pull the caliper slide bolts out, clean them on the wire wheel, and grease them. The ones on the passengers side refused to come out. I used the hammer and a punch and sent her for new bolts. These were bad. While she was gone I attempted to compress the drivers caliper. It was frozen. Fortunately I had a brand new one I bought for another truck. When she got back she was confused as to why the caliper had changed colors. LOL.
SO we got it all back together and then attempted to bleed the brakes. The back ones would not bleed. We tried everything. Nothing.
I pulled the line off the master cylinder. IT was pumping. I hooked that back up and took it off the bottom of the proportional valve. Nothing. I stole the one off my 88. We bled the brakes and things worked great. I pulled out in the road and did two hard stops. Suddenly the pedal went to the floor.
Back at the house we found the threads in the proportional valve had pulled out of the line for the front. The line had a perfect cylinder of aluminum around it. It looked like some kind of insert had been stuck in it.
So I put the other one back in. I could still drive with just the fronts.
Since the neighbors truck was a little 88 Nissan and was only 4 miles away I figured we could make it OK. We did. IT went up on the two dolly and home with no problems. Stopping distances were just a tad long.
I searched for a valve. No new stock ones anywhere that are affordable. So I looked on LKQ's website. They had 3 88-90 trucks. After 90 they changed the RWAL system.
The next day it poured rain. Nothing got done, anyone want to build me a garage. LOL.
We got up to LKQ and found that all 3 trucks on the website were gone. There was one truck that wasn't listed. I got the valve and we came home. I put it on the truck and it would not bleed. So the wife pulled it off while I did something I had never done before. I took the other two valves apart and make one. It worked perfectly.
Since I didn't get the neighbors truck fixed I had to take him up to the VA in Hickory the next day. We were cruising up the highway when all of a sudden the truck started shaking like crazy. I thought the driveshaft had come apart. Nope. I checked the lug nuts to make sure we got them all tight ( we did) and we tried again.
When I got up to 50 it happened again. I got back out and found smoke coming off the passengers side rear brake drum. Dammit.
We limped to the VA at 40 and got him to his appointment.