rear brake upgrade

Hey guys, went riding sunday and broke my rear brake line. Had to crimp it off to finish out the day and then get home. When you brake something, it's time to upgrade it, right? :gee: lol Anyhow, long story short, my ebrake hasn't worked right in almost 7 years, and I have looked at it and had multiple brake shops and mechanic shops look at it, and everyone swears it's fixed. I still have no ebrake. Everytime I search, it comes up with rear disc. I don't think I want to go that extreme, just want to get my ebrake to working!!! My auto adjusters dont auto adjust!!! Any ideas on what to change or do to make it work?

I'd say if you had someone look at it, and "fix it" I'd take it back to them, until it was fixed. Especially if you paid them to fix it.

Other than that, maybe a brake line flush, upgrade your master cylinder, cut some sheet metal and other useless pieces to shed weight.

What axle?

I would have to agree with Beakie and the logic of if you brought it somewhere and they said they "fixed" it then I would bring it back to them..
Second option would be to pick up a brake hardware kit that come with wheel cylinders, and springs and the parts necessary to rebuild a rear drum brake minus the shoe and drum.
Third option which you had already indicated that you didn't wish to go that extreme is to swap in an axle such as an 8.8 that has rear disk brakes already and to attach an ebrake cable is a fairly simple process. Even if you have an 8.25 which in most people's opinions is a fairly stout axle. An 8.8 is still an upgrade if mearly only looking at the brakeing aspect of the swap. But not to mention the added strength that you can gain and the fact that they cam be had in most areas for around $150. That includes the salty northeast where I reside

what year??? what size tires?? what axle??

if it has a single diaphram brake booster, look into a dual diaphram setup

Sorry, guess I should add a little info about my rig. It is a 95 2 door manual 4.0. Has the stock D35 axle. 3" lift with 31's. And whenever I have had it fixed, it worked...for a little while. We have moved around with my job alot and have never been near the shop that fixed it when it needed refixed...lol It's not that I don't want to step up to the disc conversion, it's just that I have no access to a welder or torch and don't want to go having to regear the front to match. That's alot more money than I'm willing to part with at this time. It is something I wouldn't mind saving up for in the future though. I'm just trying to find out why the rear adjusters don't adjust! I hadn't thought of buying a rebuild kit and replacing everything...I might go that route and see what happens.

chrisja77 said:

Sorry, guess I should add a little info about my rig. It is a 95 2 door manual 4.0. Has the stock D35 axle. 3" lift with 31's. And whenever I have had it fixed, it worked...for a little while. We have moved around with my job alot and have never been near the shop that fixed it when it needed refixed...lol It's not that I don't want to step up to the disc conversion, it's just that I have no access to a welder or torch and don't want to go having to regear the front to match. That's alot more money than I'm willing to part with at this time. It is something I wouldn't mind saving up for in the future though. I'm just trying to find out why the rear adjusters don't adjust! I hadn't thought of buying a rebuild kit and replacing everything...I might go that route and see what happens.

Click to expand...

Ok its real easy to fix this.. take the old adjusters out and clean them with solvent, and lube them with anti-seeze. most of the time they do not work due to no lube or the wrong lube. Then check to see if the cable is working properly if not you can grab a harware kit at any kragen/autozone ect.. its not that hard to make drum brakes work.. Give that a try before you dump some cash into a disc upgrade..

chrisja77 said:

Sorry, guess I should add a little info about my rig. It is a 95 2 door manual 4.0. Has the stock D35 axle. 3" lift with 31's. And whenever I have had it fixed, it worked...for a little while. We have moved around with my job alot and have never been near the shop that fixed it when it needed refixed...lol It's not that I don't want to step up to the disc conversion, it's just that I have no access to a welder or torch and don't want to go having to regear the front to match. That's alot more money than I'm willing to part with at this time. It is something I wouldn't mind saving up for in the future though. I'm just trying to find out why the rear adjusters don't adjust! I hadn't thought of buying a rebuild kit and replacing everything...I might go that route and see what happens.

Click to expand...

i never trust the adjuster even though my rear brakes are set up correctly. i manually adjust the rear brakes evry 6 months or whenever i feel the e-brake getting allittle sloppy. it only takes a few minutes to adjust the rears.

block off front tires
take e-brake off and put in neutral
jack up one rear tire
pull plug on back of drum
using screwdriver, pry up on adjuster wheel
spin tire until the drum drags slightly.
repeat on other side