Hi there, I'd like to start with a bit of background for all of you guys to laugh your butts out and then at least for mercy help me out , lol. Background.- I went to install new (slightly used as the rear old ones where so worn out that could be seen as inexpensive slick version) tires and when the guy put the car up I noticed there was a clamp blocking of a rear break line and also a vise blocking the hose that comes down from the hard line ! of course I freaked out as it's been about a month or maybe a little bit more since I got the car (haven't used the car at all as I installed a shifter, swapped seats, new carpet, sound system, etc..) and never, ever, thought I could be running on front brakes only ! so I decided that it was time to take a look inside those drums, face the fact that another unpleasant surprise/challenge was coming and grab the bull by the horns ! As expected, the drums where hollow they even chopped the tip of the brackets at the end of the "hand brakes" steel wires, so I accepted the facts and decided to install the whole thing, went to get new shoes (pads), springs kit, adjusters, cylinders and the funky pins that you have to install on the cylinders in order to push out the pads against the rotor. Issue.- This friend of mine (that has been helping me out performing all of the mods and is been on each and every junkyard quest for pieces and sponsors my project borrowing me some of his tools like impact wrench a huge floor jack, etc...) wasn't sure how to place the pads I mean the order as you have 2 long and to short on the set... and of course you need a shorty and a long one on each side (I guess) but I don't know if we did the right thing as we kinda figured out how to hook up everything together and the car breaks (well it actually doesn't break well as we couldn't bleed well the system as I noticed that the splitter on the rear end of the break line has 4 connections (on my Ford Ranger has an input, left output and right output only which makes a total of 3, right?) so I called the car parts store and asked the guy to look at his catalog and tell how many the original part had, he confirmed that only 3, but that's not the end of the chaos ! (he offered to order the piece for me but the price was around 60 us which I thought was ridiculous and so I asked to figure out another model with some fittings and yada-yada-yada.. he ended of suggesting a different piece with just an additional fitting to make it work, so I said way to go !) but then I told my pal that I wanted to pull the piece out first to see if was going to be able to replace it or just drive it down to a mechanic and let him get it done. Another beautiful surprise came along ! no fluid leaking out from the hard line fitting connected to the hose, well that explained everything so far, right ? so I tracked down the line everything seemed fine, then noticed there was a plug screwed into the splitter that comes right after the reservoir under the hood, I pulled that piece of $h!t out and reconnected the break line and the magic happened we could listen the cylinders pushing the pads against the drums and put the wheels back on for a test, forward and backward breaking badly with nice grinding sound coming from the rusted drums (already hand sanded by me in order to remove some rust) and pads doing their thing" lol no problem with the grinding sound, but I am afraid of having my pads installed on the wrong order so here it comes the request. Request.- Could any of you guys please post pictures of your rear breaks setup or a diagram from the manual please ? as I want to make sure first if the pads, springs, adjusters etc. are well installed and then if you could also mention how many outlets (counting the input) you splitter has please and if any of you have ever seen a fourth outlet with a hose going up an into a hole on the frame :confused: as I don't understand to where this last hose could be connected or if I should just cancel it by reinstalling the clamp on it to avoid fluid getting there and that could be the reason why after at least 15 bleeding shots on each side of the rear lines it still feels like we didn't bleed even though there are no visible leaks on the rear end .
good morning, you have a lot going on...the easy part first. the hose going to the frame is a breather tube for the ...rearend housing...keep it hooked up so the rearend doesn't blow oil out the seals. ......
next... make sure when you bleed the brakes..you keep fluid in the master cyl. if it gets low it will pump air and you will have to start over. bleed the right rear first...then the left rear. if you still get no or little pressure then you may need a new master cyl. also make sure the brake shoes are adjusted to the drum first... ...:Handshake...
Front brakes were working fine before... Thanks a lot for your reply and advices , I will follow them and as a matter of fact we adjusted the pads against the drum so there is a slight tension when you spin the wheels, but the front brakes where working fine , but now the pedal goes down to the bottom and in order to brake I gotta "pump" the pedal, so while driving I give a first push then I back up around half of the travel and then push back again to get it to brake (of course they were not so powerful but I thought it was normal as the last time I drove a Maverick was around 6 years ago and it was a 75 with a 302 and a huge sub enclosure in the trunk so as long as I remember it didn't brake so well, lol ) now regarding the "rear end bleed", as I mentioned before it was blocked with a clamp would that be an issue ? do I have to put the clamp back or not ? and how about the order and length of the horse shoe pads ? where does the long one goes, front or rear (depending on the side of course), do you remember by any chance ? as the holes on them where symmetrical so it seemed like would work both ways. Thanks a lot again for all of your help, it is very well appreciated.
Try re-bleeding the brakes.Start with right rear/left front/left rear/right front.Souds to me like you may need a new master cyl though.Check front wheel cylenders make sure they are not leaking/frozen.
