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Braking question

riverfever

NAXJA Forum User
Today I installed new front pads and had the rotors turned. I also had the drums turned and installed new shoes and wheel cylinders. While I was there, I put on YJ e-brake cables. The drums needed to be at their loosest setting for the drum to slide over the shoes. When I hooked up the e-brake cables and tightened them, the e-brake doesn't hold. Also...the brakes, in general, suck. I have 31" tires and I can't lock them up at all. I have a 96 w/o ABS. Brakes have been bled and I have good pedal. Tomorrow morning I am going to check and make sure the shoes are situated properly in the drums. I may have installed the short shoes in the wrong direction. Just out of curiosity, who has larger than stock tires w/o ABS and has better brakes?

-river
 
Just for any future users with similar problems that search:

I went out this morning and knew right away that something was wrong. Drivers drum pulled right off and passengers was pretty stubborn. Turns out I had both leading shoes on drivers and trailing shoes on passengers. Righted it and re-adjusted the e-brake and it works much better. They still don't lock up like the German cars I've previously owned. I never really tried to test the brakes when it was new so I still don't know if it's what it's supposed to be. German cars were about 1200 lbs. lighter with tiny tires too so I'm certain that is relevant.

YJ e-brake cables were not a direct fit. I opted to lengthen the adjustment rod instead of re-locating the cable mounts located on the trans tunnel. I used threaded rod and a coupling nut. After we get moved and I get a shop set up again I will probably try and weld the rod on and make it final.

-river
 
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It's not gonna be easy to lock up the brakes with 31" tires. If you've got a good pedal and it feels like it's stopping well in normal driving, you're fine. Ideally you don't want your wheels to lock up anyway. If the rears lock up easy, they're probably adjusted too tight.

Yes, the bigger shoe always goes on the back :D
 
Comedians coming out of the woodwork eh? :)
 
By the way, I wish this thread had existed a few weeks ago when I was trying to fix my sister's parking brake. I tried all sorts of tricks to get it to work with only minimal improvement. She finally gave up on me and took it to Midas. 400.00 later, her brake was fixed. She asked what specifically was wrong and they were pretty vauge about the details. Welded something, replaced the rear shoes, replaced the drums, put washers on the threaded nut to get it tighter... They all sound like band-aids to me.

I did her rear brakes 6 months ago and now I'm really curious as to whether or not I put the shoes in right. In my defense, drum brakes really should not be done with a flashlight held in your teeth as the only light source.


And to be serious this time, I can lock up my rear brakes on dry pavement with 31" BFG ATs now that I've replaced my brake booster and master cylinder. The cylinder had gone bad leaking oil onto the booster diaphragm which caused a tiny leak that would whistle. I didn't realize how degraded the brake system was by it until after I had replaced those items and bled the entire system.
 
I don't think that there is enough material on rotors and drums these days to turn them and have them work worth a dang. They just aren't like they were 20 years ago.
 
riverfever said:
Just for any future users with similar problems that search:

I went out this morning and knew right away that something was wrong. Drivers drum pulled right off and passengers was pretty stubborn. Turns out I had both leading shoes on drivers and trailing shoes on passengers. Righted it and re-adjusted the e-brake and it works much better. They still don't lock up like the German cars I've previously owned. I never really tried to test the brakes when it was new so I still don't know if it's what it's supposed to be. German cars were about 1200 lbs. lighter with tiny tires too so I'm certain that is relevant.

YJ e-brake cables were not a direct fit. I opted to lengthen the adjustment rod instead of re-locating the cable mounts located on the trans tunnel. I used threaded rod and a coupling nut. After we get moved and I get a shop set up again I will probably try and weld the rod on and make it final.

-river

YJ cable modes are not an OEM thing.
ID10T errors are :D
Hopefully you got the lead and trailing shoes on right, this time ;)
 
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