Broke my breaks

[DieselSJ]

AARRRRRGGGHHHH. On the way home from work today, braked hard at a light and as the wag was slowing the rear suddenly wanted to go right. Light changes, I go through the intersection and get ready to turn into a parking lot and...nothing...brake pedal goes to the floor:eek:. Managed to get it slowed and into the parking lot and parked away from other cars. Take a quick look underneath and there is brake fluid pouring out of the rear drum on the passenger side:mad:. Blew a wheel cylinder. Looks like she gets rear brakes this weekend. At least it did not happen on the road trip last weekend, nor did it happen in a situation where I needed to stop quickly. Dodged a bullet on that one.

Performance Friction stuff from AutoZone?

[drlocke]

Been there, done that. :(

Only solution is preemptive maintenance. Rubber and synthetics age with time. If the wheel cylinders haven't seen the light of day in years, or the vehicle had spent any time sitting unused, it's a good idea to overhaul the braking system, including cylinders, brake lines, MC....

When something gives in the braking system during a panic stop the problem is that often the skid marks end up being in your shorts rather than on the tarmac. And one is smart to thank their lucky stars that's all that happened.

[backpack09]

Do some digging before you start swapping parts. I thought I blew out the wheel cylinder or the rubber line, but it was actually the main line going to the rear that rotted out.

[JeepinPete]

I'll echo what has been said. Replace the other wheel cylinder while you are in there. It will be in the same condition as the one that failed, in other words about to go itself. Check the hard lines carefully. The main line to the rear likes to rot out behind the gas tank. Had that happen to me on my '87.

What gets me in your description is that you lost all brakes. That should not have happened. The front brakes are on a seperate circuit, and though the pedal would have been a lot lower, you should have had plenty of pedal to lock up the front brakes...

[Gambler68]

yep, rear brakes are what, 20% of the system? Time to start rooting around, these are big hunks of steel and there's alot of leetle plastic go karts out there to smush.

[jeeping1974]

brace yourself to start replacing a lot of parts. i had the wheel cylinders on the back on my j10 start to leak so i replaced them, turns out i ended up replacing all the lines that went to the front as well. they were all rusted and corroted together.

[FSJ Guy]

Yes, very odd that you lost ALL braking power. Time for a whole new system????

[addicted]

It's the Jeep gods frowning upon you for making your's powerful and efficient at the same time. A combo that was never meant to be!

Glad you got stopped without using the Dukes of Hazard method.

[DieselSJ]

Yeah, it is on my list to go through the entire brake system, along with front wheel bearings, axle u-joints, ball joints, etc... All that stuff is still original, 20 year old, 88K mile stuff. I have been chipping away at the list a little at a time, the brakes just went before I got to that part of the list. Master Cyl is already new - it was replaced when I in stalled the HB.

I didn't lose all of my braking - I had enough front left that I could stand on the pedal to get it stopped. I certainly would not have wanted to do any sudden stops to avoid an accident! I was only about 3 miles from home, and with some manual downshifting I was able to get it limped home and into the garage.

[YellowJeep]

YIKES! Sounds like a fun trip! I've done that a few times myself...glad you and the rig made if back in one piece.

If you have to spend some $$ on the brakes, what about spending a little more and going with rear disks? People seem to think that it is a nice upgrade to the overall breaking system.

[DieselSJ]

No disks at this time. Total parts cost for 2 drums, shoes, wheel cyls and hardware kit, along with a couple cans of brakeclean and brake fluid is under $150.

Tore it apart last night because I wanted to get the drums turned today and get everything installed Saturday. I found that the reason the wheel cylinder blew was because the lining was totally gone from both shoes, and the shoes had been eating into the drum, and the shoes had moved so far apart that the cylinder basically just fell apart. This was a problem that existed long before I acquired the vehicle, and next time I'm not going to trust someone when they tell me that the brakes "were just done a few months ago". So, new drums.

Got the nasty side all cleaned up tonight, so it is ready for all the new parts tomorrow.

[DieselSJ]

All I can say is...Wow! What a difference. Brake pedal is much higher than it was before, and very little effort is required to lock all 4. NOW I understand the increased performance of the hydroboost system - it just took rear brakes that WORK to find out how good the system really is.

:thumbsup: :drivin: