Eric,
Are you talking about the rear brakes leaking? If you look at the
brakes in the front, (they are disc brakes) and they are different looking
at the rear of the truck, you may have a wheel cylinder leaking on the drum
brakes. Disc brakes use a caliper to squeeze the pads together against the
brake rotor. Drum brakes have a pair of brake shoes inside the drum and are
pushed out against the inside of the drum by means of a wheel cylinder. Try
to find a buddy down there that has worked on drum brakes to help you. If
you can't find anyone, before you start on this, get a Haynes manual, they
are very good at step by step instructions along with a lot of pics to
guide you. Remove the rear wheel, (chock the truck) release the emergency
brake and try to remove the brake drum. You might have to get a couple of
big screwdrivers to help pry the drum off the shoes. if it won't come off,
it usually means the shoes are pretty well worn and have worked themselves
into a small ridge inside the drum. If this if the case, you are going to
have to manually loosen the brakes. To do this, look at the bottom of the
brake backing plate. you should see an oval shaped rubber plug. Remove the
plug and with a screwdriver, reach inside and start turning the star wheel
inside. If it seems tight, that's because it has a ratchet arm on it for
the self adjusters. If it turns easily and you hear a clicking that
usually means you are tightening the brake and going the wrong way.
Sometimes, it is necessary to use a smaller screwdriver to push the ratchet
arm back so you can turn the star wheel. Once you get the drum off you will
see the shoes (they are a crescent shape) and in the middle, behind the
springs and cables you will see a small cylinder, about the size of a salt
shaker (the ones they usually have in the military chow halls). It will
have rubber cups on both ends and a pin between it and the brake shoes. If
that's what's leaking, you'll need to replace it. Ask your local parts
store to show you the drum brake tools, you will need 2 special tools. One
for removing and re-installing the springs and one for removing and
re-installing the shoe clips. This is where it get really tricky. You have
to remove all those springs and cables and clips before you can even get at
the wheel cylinder. The best piece of advice I can give you on this is, do
one wheel at a time. That way if you get stuck trying to remember where
something goes, you can always go look at the other wheel to see how things
are routed, clipped, attached, etc. If I was closer I'd drop by to give you
a hand, I've done the job more times then I care to remember. My dad was a
rural letter carrier that owned his own vehicle. We used to do brakes twice
a year and clutch once a year. His vehicle of choice? A Dodge, of course!
Good Luck!
Ray
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:04:45 EDT