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Help me settle an arguement. PLEASE

My rear brakes would lock up when my rear axle seal was gone because of fluid all over the shoes and drum.
 
I'll tell ya what happened.....Every time I got on the brakes a little harder than usual,one of the back wheels would lock up. It didn't matter if it was wet or dry,on road or off road.I tried adjusting the brakes with no luck.So,I popped off the drum and everything was covered in gear oil. I changed the seal,got new pads and cleaned the drum. I never had it happen to me again. The contminated pads were only half worn so the pads themselves weren't the culprit.
 
I see it all the time...and it causes BOTH. Usually locks up after it gets good and warm, but mostly just slips the rest of the time.
 
"Brake Fluid" is not a "lubricant" other than being "wet".
 
What I've see more often than not is a bad bearing caused the axle seal to leak and the drum to lock.
Not that brake fluid leaking would not cause the brakes to lock I've only seen it not work.
Now if the right is leaking the left may seem to lock.
 
It causes the brake drum to grab and lock up. I actually broke a rear axle due to this.
 
yotaparts said:
i think it actually slips causing the opposite wheel to lock up
Click to expand...

I have found this to be true. My driver side wheel cylinder is leaking and passenger side is the one locking up. I tested the fit on each drum to to see if maybe I had adjusted the pass side tighter than the drivers side but it's not. It's actually more loose. Any thoughts. Is my rig just Bassackwards? I just can't imagine a brake pad soaked in fluid functioning better than normal, grabbing harder, and making a wheel lock up. In my mind the opposite wheel has to be locking up because of the uneven distribution of force. Call me CRAZY.
 
Last edited:
okay from his orginal post it seems that the axle seal is bad. causing diff. oil to leak into breaks. if i got this part right, that brake will definately slip. its a lubricant, which will give limited friction, hence the slippage. it would make sense that the other side will lock up because all the braking force is on one side instead of equal on both sides. and to add to this point, my dads f-350 had diff oil inside the drum. the f-350s have both drum and disc, so the disc while driving was doing all stopping, but when you put the parking break on (drum brake full of oil) the car wouldn't even notice the brake was on.
 
Because the coefficient of friction between the pad and the drum base on pressure becomes extremely non-linear when grease, oil, or brake fluid contaminates the interface.

In other words, the grab REALLLLLL bad.

There comes a point where if the pad is completely soaked and the drum is completely covered in oil, the brakes may slip, but applying pressure will cause a sudden grab.
 
etaniyani said:
okay from his orginal post it seems that the axle seal is bad. causing diff. oil to leak into breaks. if i got this part right, that brake will definately slip. its a lubricant, which will give limited friction, hence the slippage. it would make sense that the other side will lock up because all the braking force is on one side instead of equal on both sides. and to add to this point, my dads f-350 had diff oil inside the drum. the f-350s have both drum and disc, so the disc while driving was doing all stopping, but when you put the parking break on (drum brake full of oil) the car wouldn't even notice the brake was on.
Click to expand...

I don't have a bad axle seal. I know exactly where the leak is coming from. It's the driver side wheel cylinder leaking fluid because I upgraded the MC and never changed the original '87 d44 brake cylinders. So the increase in pressure caused the drivers cylinder to spring a small leak. I did a test to see what side was locking up by getting it to make a skid mark. It's the Passenger side locking up. Thanks for backing me up on this one I man. I really thought I was loosing my mind.
 
Now if you do a break job and end up with one side locking up, check that you got the brake shoes on correctly. There is a leading and trailing shoe. If you get them switched, or both of one kind on one side you will have wheel lockups.
 
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