Just an update - I "bench bled" the master cylinder (on the
truck) and the brakes did get a *little* better, but they are
still marginal. (Just as an aside, was it really necessary
for Dodge to use four hundred different crazy sizes of fittings
for this stuff? Most of them are standard 3/16 fortunately,
but the ABS valve connection appeared to be 5/16 size threads
but still 3/16 line, and there were a couple of goofy sizes
on the master cylinder. I ended up drilling out the existing
fittings and cleaning them up on the wire wheel so that I
could re-use them; otherwise I would have had to run all
over the place trying to get all the fittings and adapters
I'd need to make it work.)
Oh, I did discover that the little "manifold" I mentioned
which distributes the fluid from the proportioning valve to
the front and rear brakes did indeed maintain the separation
between front and rear, so that was good anyway.
I noticed a couple of days ago as I was parked on ice that I
could apply the brakes and the rear wheels did not stop spinning;
no matter how much pedal I gave it, it seemed to have no effect
on the rear wheels (or the rear wheel that was spinning anyway -
open diff). Based on that and just driving around, I have the
feeling that I've only got front brakes. (If I slam on the
brakes on a slippery road, I don't seem to be getting the rear
lockup that I would expect in that situation.)
The braking doesn't seem to come in until the pedal is
fairily low. I'm starting to think maybe the rear adjusters
are all the way in and the shoes aren't contacting the drums.
That might explain the low pedal and lack of rear brakes. I
haven't had a chance to look into that yet, but I figure that's
where I'm headed next.
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars |
`-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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