Slick 60's

Drove the truck to town yesterday evening and on the way home I noticed that the pedal felt a little soft. Anyway, I was about 3 or 4 miles from the house and decided to do a brake check. They were a bit soft on first hit but I pumped em once and they stiffened right up, but I also noticed that it felt like the rears hung up a bit. Got it home and sure enough they were pretty tight. Looked it all over this morning and backed the adjusters all the way off and sprayed everything down with cleaner and everything looked good. Put it all back together and drove it a bit and it seemed to be okay. Backed up several times to get the pads readjusted and all seemed well. Drove it to town this evening and all seemed good. No drag, nothing. Stopped and got some gas and didn't notice any smell. However somewhere between the gas station and home, about 18 miles, they started hanging just a bit. Not serious but about 3 or so miles from the house I could start to smell them. Got it home and parked it and they were really hot. Not sure whats up. M/C is about a year or so old, not sure on the rubber rear line, that may be the culprit. Any ideas or thoughts? Its a front disc rear drum with a 68 Mustang drum/disc non power M/C.

i would check that hose
they are not expensive

Easy check to see if it is the brake hose. Take a box wrench for the bleeders and bleed one side when it starts to happen. Bleeding either side will do it. One thing to wathc out for, if it is the hose the fluid will squirt out fast. Protect your eyes and have paper towel handy and or put one over the bleeder while bleeding. I don't think you would even have to drive the truck to get the brakes to lock up, just pump the pedal until you have hard brakes.

Rich

I have had a similar experiance. When the rubber hose deteriates internally it can act like a one way valve. allows the brake fluid to go to the brake cylinders as designed but not return (release) keeping the shoes in contact with the drum. Very frustrating to get it to duplicate the problem when sitting in the shop on the hoist with your tools to fix it available. If your running stock brakes all of the rubber hoses are probably the same age and should be replaced as well.

Just an update on the brake probs. Got a new rubber hose for the rear and while removing the old one of course one of the fittings wouldn't come loose and the way the hose attaches to the rear end housing, when the hard lines are connected you cant get a fitting wrench on them, you have to use a regular open end wrench. Anyway, ended up twisting the lone line that runs from the front of the truck down the frame rail to the rubber hose on the rear end. So I made up a new hard line and got that in place along with the new rubber hose. Brakes aren't dragging/sticking anymore but I cant get them bled by myself. I tried pumping them and then placing a rod between the brake pedal and the front seat to hold pressure but I still cant get a good hard pedal. Its better but not near good enough. So I'll get someone to gimme a hand with the bleeding and all should be okay.

Get either e pressure or vacume bleeder kit.

just crack the bleeders and let it gravity bleed.

Tried to gravity bleed them tonight and got a better pedal but its still very soft on initial push, two pumps and its pretty good. I bled all four wheels at least twice, the rears maybe three times each.

Any ideas? The M/C is less then a year old as are the front calipers. Rear wheel cylinders look fairly new with no leaks.

Speed bleeders

Are the brakes still hanging up, or are you wondering about bleeding method?

I have a one-man bleeder kit that has a small reservoir with a magnet on it. Then it has plastic "needles" that are inserted into the open bleeder screw with a tube leading to the reservoir. Attach the reservoir to a place above (higher than) the bleeder and give a few pumps till there are no more bubbles.

It works like a charm.

The tool is made by OEM, tool number 25036.

Bleed the longest line to the shortest.

I got it fixed. I couldn't get a good pedal even though I wasn't getting any air from the lines. Seems when I was fixing the stuck rear brake shoe issues I adjusted the shoes all the way in and forgot to adjust them back out. Got 'em where they need to be and got a great pedal and great brakes!!