My rear brakes (drum) have never really grabbed much. I recently replaced a leaking wheel cylinder and for a few brake applications they worked awesome. The rear abs actually activated. By now I'm back to the previous laziness. What can be wrong? It's a real pain having only front brakes at icey intersections.

Are the shoes adjusted correctly? I know they should self adjust over time but maybe they are to far out of adjustment. Are there any valves that direct more pressure to the front than the back and vise versa? Maybe its stuck or something.

Are the shoes adjusted correctly? I know they should self adjust over time but maybe they are to far out of adjustment. Are there any valves that direct more pressure to the front than the back and vise versa? Maybe its stuck or something.

Entirely possible to have one brake screw up. My right rear had almost 1/4 inch of clearance once because the nail that holds one shoe on dissapeared. That happen to be the one that holds the self adjuster cable so the adjuster was able to back off. There is a proportioning valve on the truck right under the master cylinder. Chances of it sticking are slim. Do you have a brake valve under the truck by the rear axle? That is the one that has a rod that goes from the valve to the axle. It is a load sensing valve and if the rod comes off it will set the rear brakes to the lowest level of braking. That happened on my daughter's truck.

Bingo^^^^^^^

Entirely possible to have one brake screw up. My right rear had almost 1/4 inch of clearance once because the nail that holds one shoe on dissapeared. That happen to be the one that holds the self adjuster cable so the adjuster was able to back off. There is a proportioning valve on the truck right under the master cylinder. Chances of it sticking are slim. Do you have a brake valve under the truck by the rear axle? That is the one that has a rod that goes from the valve to the axle. It is a load sensing valve and if the rod comes off it will set the rear brakes to the lowest level of braking. That happened on my daughter's truck.

I have that valve. I actually have it disconnected and tied up slightly. I suspected it was load sensing and did that in hopes it might help. It didn't help but could it hinder? I'll take a closer look at the adjusters etc.

i had this issue it is the rear brake proportioning valve up on the frame. It took me a bit to figure it out but everything looked correct and look to be operating how it was suppost to. But the magic brake gods made my rears last 250k and didnt have even a mark on them. Long story sort figure out it was the vavle up on the frame drivers side where that rod was runs upfrom the axle. It was broke in side and was mostly closed so was have a flow issue. So i wipped out alittle rednecklolgy and by passed the little guy. I have had it that way for two years and it works great only issue you will be running 60/40 split all the time will pucker you butt first time you touch them. They will throw you through the window. Because you arent us to have all the brakes working. I dont have any issue in the snow or ice either. I not telling you this is the best way to fix it but i have 50 k on my rednecking and it is great.

i had this issue it is the rear brake proportioning valve up on the frame. It took me a bit to figure it out but everything looked correct and look to be operating how it was suppost to. But the magic brake gods made my rears last 250k and didnt have even a mark on them. Long story sort figure out it was the vavle up on the frame drivers side where that rod was runs upfrom the axle. It was broke in side and was mostly closed so was have a flow issue. So i wipped out alittle rednecklolgy and by passed the little guy. I have had it that way for two years and it works great only issue you will be running 60/40 split all the time will pucker you butt first time you touch them. They will throw you through the window. Because you arent us to have all the brakes working. I dont have any issue in the snow or ice either. I not telling you this is the best way to fix it but i have 50 k on my rednecking and it is great.

That sounds like something I can do! Did you just pull the lines out of the valve and couple them together?

On my 1996 Dodge Ram 1500 its also a rear drum braking system as well. I don't rely on the auto-adjusters to do their job I just make it part of my maintenance routine to check the shoe slack and adjust them up. Just only takes a few seconds. When rotating tires I'll take the time and pull the drum off and inspect the shoes and hardware for damages.

well for the most part. I decided to replace all the lines from the spliter on the axle to the frame because it was so rusty from not working. Also on my truck the original line ened up being to sort to reach up to the frame so i made new one with a front brake line off a pete. so that is can travel and move without breaking.

I started working on this problem tonight and found a couple problems. The side I replaced the cylinder had old looking oil all over in it. There were no signs of leaks at all and I cleaned everything really good with brake clean when I reassembled it so where did the oil come from? Were the pads that saturated and it came out over time? On the other side I have a leaking axle seal. Is there a write up on fixing that?

I started working on this problem tonight and found a couple problems. The side I replaced the cylinder had old looking oil all over in it. There were no signs of leaks at all and I cleaned everything really good with brake clean when I reassembled it so where did the oil come from? Were the pads that saturated and it came out over time? On the other side I have a leaking axle seal. Is there a write up on fixing that?

I have no idea why that posted twice!!

I didnt find a right up on axle seal and I dont know how to get my book into the computer so here is a link it should help alot... your axle starts about half way down http://www.autozone.com/autozone/repairinfo/repairguide/repairGuideContent.jsp?pageId=0996b43f8075bc3c I will work on the book as far as brakes go,

       you can bypass the valve with a short piece of tubing or approved line mine worked great and has had no problems and has been that way for almost 3 years,

      side note the brake systems on these trucks should be fully bled every 30k miles meaning start at farthest point from M.C. and bleed till you get clean clear fluid work your way around farthest to nearest, that's my two cents people may or may not agree.  

      obviously they were bled to some degree when you replaced the cylinder but my question is what did the fluid look like that was bled out nice and clean or dark, was there good flow or did it seem obstructed, did the parking brake work properly are the springs and adjusters moving freely. lastly how many miles are on the drums did you have those turned?   

Here you go!

 

Part 1

 

Part 2

 

This is on a 1/2 ton truck, but principals remain the same! You more than likely will not need a diff. housing spreader, I know I did not...

 

Let me know if you need more help!

i had this issue it is the rear brake proportioning valve up on the frame. It took me a bit to figure it out but everything looked correct and look to be operating how it was suppost to. But the magic brake gods made my rears last 250k and didnt have even a mark on them. Long story sort figure out it was the vavle up on the frame drivers side where that rod was runs upfrom the axle. It was broke in side and was mostly closed so was have a flow issue. So i wipped out alittle rednecklolgy and by passed the little guy. I have had it that way for two years and it works great only issue you will be running 60/40 split all the time will pucker you butt first time you touch them. They will throw you through the window. Because you arent us to have all the brakes working. I dont have any issue in the snow or ice either. I not telling you this is the best way to fix it but i have 50 k on my rednecking and it is great.

Any chance you could get a picture of what you did? The tee block on my axle is welded on and it has a vent pipe out of it so I don't know if I can replace it with anything. And the brake supply is part of that block, no threaded fitting to seperate them. So how did you connect your new line from the frame to the axle?

Here you go!

Part 1

Part 2

This is on a 1/2 ton truck, but principals remain the same! You more than likely will not need a diff. housing spreader, I know I did not...

Let me know if you need more help!

I see the videos are for front axle seal replacement. My problem is on the rear axle.

the block is screwed in to the axle house it is also the vent for the axle. ill take some picture but no laughing. I live in a tiny town and had to use what i could get but it seem to work. Sorry pictures arent that good i am laying in the snow and just got home from work so i have 1000 gallon of deicer on everything.  If you look i use the vent house with some custom zip tie action to support the brake line. so i dont break the hard line on each end. Sad to say but i think i have more zip ties then bolt on my truck at this point. I do love a good zip tie.
 
 

Changing the seal is easy. Since youalready know how to pull the hub the rest is child's play. Once the hub is off pry the old seal out from the inside and CAREFULLY tap the new one back in. Reassemble and you are done.

D'OH! My bad!

Just be careful of when you go to reassemble the hub to not let the hub hang on the spindle with out the outer bearing in place so you don't ruin a new seal.

Well I got it all back together and the brakes work way better! I ended up replacing both drums, the pads, one slave cylinder, and bypassing the proportioning valve.