Close to finished but not quite—- brake issues

[Dk46]

I’m getting close on my 82 Bronco but still having brake problems. I have a new brake booster, master cylinder, and both rear wheel cylinders. I have bled the master cylinder—twice—and bled entire system—-twice. Still have hardly any pedal. Pumping does no good, it will stop, but it makes you think it won’t. Any direction or advice is appreciated.

[Gary Lewis]

Did we talk about the pushrod between the master and booster?  It is adjustable and if it got unadjusted it'll cause real problems.  Look at the page here: Documentation/Driveline/Brakes and then the Master Cylinders & Boosters tab and then the Push Rod Adjustment tab.

The adjustment is delicate - to short and the pedal height is poor, and too long and the brakes drag and get hot.

[grumpin]

My brakes would work but you had to push hard. Finally got into them.

The front disc brake caliper pistons were stiff, as in stuck. Replaced the calipers and checked and adjusted the rear, lubed the self adjusting screw and it is so much better.

[FuzzFace2]

You have to make sure the rear drums are adjusted right or you will not get a good pedal.

I had my whole system drained as part of my cab off frame rebuild.
I started with the used master and booster from my parts truck, it rolled on it's roof so they had to be good right ....... don't bet on it.

Anyway I replaced the rear wheel cly. and all related parts for the drum brakes, front calipers with new pads, all 3 rubber hoses.
After gravity bleeding and getting fluid at each wheel I then used a Snap-On tool vacuum bleeder that uses shop air to pull the vacuum.
Pedal was piss poor at this point so had a helper bleed the 2 man way and they got a little better but still a low pedal.
This is when I found the parts truck master & booster were bad so I got a new set and again pedal was low?

I did look into and adjusted the rod but did not help.
What did help a lot was using a pressure bleeder and push the air out. It works on 10 psi but that is all it took to get a working pedal. It is still a little low for my liking but the truck stops and that is what counts.
Dave ----

[ArdWrknTrk]

Dave,
I just put my rear brakes back together this morning (new hardware, old broken pads)
With manual adjustment and a fresh smear of grease on the rub pedestals it's an amazing difference.

[Gsmblue]

I had a problem when rebuilding my brakes. I have auto adjusters on the rear drums and did not set them correctly.

Basically I did not extend them out far enough so the shoes where never really biting. Once I extended them, and did some nice hard/sharp stabs of the breaks in reverse it all set in nicely. Then I bled the system one more time.