Brake problems 96 chevy z71

[davidfite1978]

Found the problem. The passenger wheel cylinder is leaking. Saw some fluid dripping from the drum onto the wheel/tire, so I pulled the wheel and drum off and it was EVERYWHERE. The drum was in good shape surprisingly so I'm going to order shoes/cylinders/hardware. That should get me going pretty good I think. Looks like about $100 at advanced auto after coupon. I have a mechanic friend that's gonna help me so hopefully shouldn't be too bad of a job.

 

[MinnesotaChevy]

good luck, I had fun doing mine I prefer Oreilly's but that's personal preference, Be prepared you might have to replace the lines as well if the are seized onto the wheel cylinders but it all depend on where you live I live in MN so a lot of rust was built up.

 

[davidfite1978]

Hopefully the lines will be OK. They don't look rusted too bad or anything. I won't get to start working on it til the weekend, so I'm spraying some PB blaster on it every day to hopefully loosen everything up.

 

[MinnesotaChevy]

Nice plan wish you luck on the brakes keep the forum updated

 

[98_k1500]

If you have never done them before, get someone with some experience to help you adjust them. Poor adjustment in the rear can cause MAJOR pedal feel and braking power issues.

 

[davidfite1978]

Got the brakes fixed over the weekend. I have an ex-mechanic friend who helped me. Looked simple enough but used his help just to be safe. Replaced shoes, cylinders, and hardware, then bled the brakes, and everything is back to normal. My parking brake never really held very well but now holds perfectly, so I'm sure there was lots of problems back there prior to this. Everything went very smoothly. Only gotcha was that the hardware kit was missing a couple springs so I just reused those 2.

 

[MinnesotaChevy]

Yes, depending on which hardware kit you got you did have to reuse to of the springs I had to, didn't figure it out until about 10 min of matching spring up to the other side. Nice to know you got it fixed. My parking brake is fully disengaged all the way up because the previous owner screwed it up, drove it with it on was my guess.