Brake Light On, Soft Pedal...

[Z Fury]

***UPDATE***

I bled the brakes, and it didn't help. Brakes are beyond me, so I've taken it in to a shop. Current damage report is:
- needs new master cylinder
- rear axle seals blown (again), need replaced
- rear brakes need cleaned up and possibly overhauled (again)
- front brakes are hanging up (calipers), but could work itself loose in normal driving; otherwise will need new calipers

This is the second major brake job I've had on this truck in less than 10K miles. Granted, it did sit for over a year, but how the hell are the rear seals constantly blowing out on this thing? It does zero towing or off-roading.

 

[Z Fury]

Add rear axles to the list of stuff being replaced. The shop told me they looked "beat to hell." This repair is over $1K now and rising...

 

[vipergtrdj]

Wow - I have had a soft pedal and I just replaced the wheel cylinders in the rear drums, and calipers (no pads or rotors yet). I still have a soft pedal but not as bad. I found one of the rear wheel cylinders were leaking slowly. I hope after I put the new pads and rotors on my pedal will be firmer, the pads still have some life left on them - but not much.

I am curious - how did they get needing new axles when doing the rear brakes ? I understand its sort of part of the system, but usually just swapping drums and all you don't pay much attention to the axles really.

 

[Z Fury]

My truck has always had somewhat of a soft brake pedal. It seemed the first couple inches of pressure on the pedal did nothing, but I still had about 75% of the pedal to work with. When I took it in, my functioning percentage was probably about 15% at most. It was damn near to the floor before it would slow down. I drove it to the shop (~2 miles) late at night with the blinkers on doing no more than 30 mph.

The rear axles were leaking fluid into the drums, basically making the rear brakes worthless. When he pulled the seals he found he couldn't just replace the seal. He said the axles were pretty beat up. Being the original axles with over 200K on them, I'm not going to doubt it.

Had the seals not been leaking, I doubt the bad axles would have been caught.

 

[Z Fury]

Well, the truck blew a brake line on the test drive, so back to the shop it goes. This final bill is going to be damaging...

 

[vipergtrdj]

Well, the truck blew a brake line on the test drive, so back to the shop it goes. This final bill is going to be damaging...

ouch, I had that happen to me last year on a different vehicle,just I ended up stopping by hitting another vehicle - I replaced my front pads and rotors over this past weekend (in a snow storm/ nor'easter) and my brake pedal is now nice and firm again.

 

[Z Fury]

Yeah, the truck was only going 10 mph when the line went, and it was on a side road on the way back to the shop, so no damage done and no one was hurt - all good things. Glad your pedal is firm again.

I'm getting very anxious to get my truck back. I miss driving it, even though it is snail-slow compared to my Z28. The truck is much more comfy to ride in though. At least we don't have snow here, yet...

 

[Problem2420]

check the abs module connection or connector if it ever thew a coude like 1 flash then 4 flashes it is the connector or the module itself.

 

[Z Fury]

Truck is done. Final bill came in just a hair under my estimate, so I'm at peace with that. Now I can get back to prepping it for winter. 4-wheel drive actuator is next on the list. That should be easy though, I hope.