Brake lock up

Should I be able to lock up my stock breaks? I'm only running 31in tires. I don't think it has abs. I don't know how many miles are on the breaks either as I got it just a few months ago. I bled my breaks today just as a PM item as I'm changing out all of the old fluids. This is my first XJ and everybody complains about the rear drums. I was just wondering. 96 4door, 4liter HO with D30 front and 8.25 rear, NP231, AW4, 3in RC lift, 15in wheels, 31in rubber

Why would you want to?

If you want to improve braking performance buy a set of Black Magic brake pads and Centric Premium rotors.

I don't WANT to. I want to know if I should be ABLE to. I bled my brakes today and cut my pedal travel in half but, even if is stand on the brake pedal, under different conditions, I cant get them to lock up. I just want to know if this is NORMAL for XJs as this is my first. I'm trying to diagnose my need vs my wants.

Every 96 I've ever seen has ABS, was it standard? Look under the back seat, drivers side for the controller. Or the toothed wheel and sensor near the front axle U-joint.

8Mud said:

Every 96 I've ever seen has ABS, was it standard? Look under the back seat, drivers side for the controller. Or the toothed wheel and sensor near the front axle U-joint.

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Thanks, Ill take a look in the AM.

8Mud said:

Every 96 I've ever seen has ABS, was it standard? Look under the back seat, drivers side for the controller. Or the toothed wheel and sensor near the front axle U-joint.

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That would mean every 96 has a D35, which is false. You may have only seen those. But there are plenty of non abs 96 XJ's
Even if a light does not come on, the pedal would pulse if the ABS was engaged.

Johnnie Walker said:

That would mean every 96 has a D35, which is false. You may have only seen those. But there are plenty of non abs 96 XJ's
Even if a light does not come on, the pedal would pulse if the ABS was engaged.

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I have verified that I DO NOT have abs. Nothing under the passenger side rear seat except the factory bottle jack, not toothed wheel anywhere around the u joint.

Turns out my self adjuster was a little sticky, I took a few high speed runs down the street in reverse this morning.

I can't lock the rear up but I do get a couple of chirps from back there and I don't nose dive as much.

8Mud said:

Every 96 I've ever seen has ABS, was it standard? Look under the back seat, drivers side for the controller. Or the toothed wheel and sensor near the front axle U-joint.

Click to expand...

I guess that applies to those that have the D35. My XJ have the 8.25 and do not have anti-lock.

bugout said:

Should I be able to lock up my stock breaks? I'm only running 31in tires. I don't think it has abs. I don't know how many miles are on the breaks either as I got it just a few months ago. I bled my breaks today just as a PM item as I'm changing out all of the old fluids. This is my first XJ and everybody complains about the rear drums. I was just wondering. 96 4door, 4liter HO with D30 front and 8.25 rear, NP231, AW4, 3in RC lift, 15in wheels, 31in rubber

Click to expand...

I bought my XJ with 225. 70.15 tires and the breaks were so-so. When I moved to 30X9.5X15 they were scary. It took some getting accustom to but was able to stop without too much butt tightening.

Repair or replace the equipment in the rear wheels and that will help tremendously. In fact, it is possible to lockup the rear that is good working order. Not so much the front with big wheels and OEM equipment on dry pavement. Changing the rear to disks did nothing to improve over a good working drum system except a better pedal feel and less maintenance. Replacing the OEM front breaks with aftermarket units of your choice will definitely get you to where you would like to be.

And that my friend is the nature of the best. Tame it or let it run wild.

Well, there are a lot of things that can reduce your braking ability.

Old, contaminated brake fluid is one. Brake fluid should be changed every 3 years or 30k miles. Old flexible brake lines deteriorate to the point they will SWELL under pressure, robbing the wheel cylinders/calipers of pressure to apply to the shoes/pads. A weak power booster or low vacuum to the booster will also rob you of braking power. Rear brake shoes that don't make full contact with the drums are also a very common problem. No shop worth its salt would do a brake job "in the old days" of drums all around without "arching" the shoes.

I had a brake lockup issue with my 98 XJ last week. At any speed, I would get rear lockup when applying the brakes as speeds under 15 mpg and the brakes in general would grab more.

My solution.....I took the rear drums off and found the adjusters had stopped working and the shoes were badly out of adjustment. I would check yours as adjusting them was all that was required to solve my problem. The drum brake setup in the XJ's is awful and poorly designed so this is a common problem. You could also have an axle seal leak or wheel cylinder leak coating the shoes in oil making them not work correctly. At a minimum, a full brake inspection is warranted as it is a safety issue. If you're not comfortable doing this yourself, most shops will check it out for you for free.

With stock tire sizes...
Front brakes? Generally should not lock up on dry pavement. Not impossible, but unlikely.
Rear brakes? Probably will lock up if the pedal is slammed down.

I had the leaking axle seal on my Wrangler's rear axle coating the inner rotor hat with oil. A complete brake rebuild and seal change fixed the issues.

A little trick I learned for sticky or rusty self adjusters, pull the parking brake maybe three clicks and then back up and brake moderately hard, repeat a few times. This seems to add a little oomph to the self adjusting process.

If the little lever that turns the star wheel on the adjuster is seriously rusted the self adjusters tend not to work well. Part of a normal brake job is to lubricate the threads on the adjuster. I use Copper paste or motorcycle moly chain lube, either works well, even Lithium grease if that is all you have.

I can lock mine up at slow speed maybe 5-10 MPH. I can even lock up (kind of) my ABS 96 at low speed with the steering wheel turned on a wet street.

You really don't want the rears to lock up first on a wet, snow covered or icy road, it can turn you in a circle pretty quickly. The fronts lock up and you pretty much loose steering, the rears lock up first and you tend to swap ends.