The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Rear wheel locked up

My next goal on my truck is to get the brakes working. It’s a ‘47 Chevy 2 ton. The back driver side wheels are locked. They were spinning free when I brought the truck home. No brake fluid so I filled and bled the brake system. Found the leak and am in the process of getting it corrected. Since then the back wheel locked. I can’t spin it by hand when jacked up. I can start the truck and move it so it will turn but there’s a lot of drag. Before I jump in was just looking for some basic ideas. Thanks for any suggestions.

Congrats on your 2-ton.

Not sure how long your truck was sitting, but if it still has the original single circuit brake system (which it sounds like it does), I would be very thorough going through the brakes. No fluid in the master could mean damaged/dried seals in wheel cylinders. A stuck cylinder could mean contamination/corrosion. I'd pull every wheel, then pull every wheel cylinder for disassembly & inspection, and then do the same to the master cylinder.

I always like to make sure a vehicle will reliably stop, before I make it go....

Thanks for the help. The mc is definitely leaking. I didn’t see any brake fluid on the wheel cylinders but I figured that would be a good start. When I originally put fluid in it I drove around the field for a while. Brakes did good but I never got over 20 mph.

It sounds like you've got a corroded wheel cylinder on the wheel that's locking. The pistons probably can't retract fully, which is holding the shoes tight against the drum. Massage the drum a little with a dead blow mallet to drive the shoes back and slip the drum off to inspect the wheel cylinder. If it's stuck, I'd strongly consider replacing it rather than rebuilding. Good brakes are cheap life insurance- - - -for you, and the rest of us who share the road with you!
Jerry

I would add to take great care with those drums. They are extremely hard to replace because they haven't been made in a long time.

My truck sat at a buddy's place for 2 years and when I went to take it home, the RF wheel was locked up. It skidded all the way on to the trailer and broke loose at the last minute. I was able to roll it back off the trailer (well carefully winched it off) and the wheel rolled OK, but with a tight spot. When I got to pulling the drum off, I found that it was an accumulation of rust that was dragging the shoes into engagement. For now, I pulled the adjuster off, put it in the vice to brake it loose (couldn't do it on the truck even with the adjuster exposed) and backed it off all the way. I suspect the wheel cylinder was locked up also, as Jerry suggested, as the system has been open for those two years (I managed to cut a brake line when I removed the bed - OOPS). The truck is getting a complete brake job before it hits the road.

One easy way to pull a vehicle with locked wheel is to put snow or water on the bed for it to slide on, yes, oil or grease would work too, kind of messy. Pieces of small pipe or rods placed under a piece of lumber would also work.

Ed

Wreckers use a far piece of plastic with a wedge at one end, that they shove under the front edge of the tire- they start to pull on the car and the tire rides up onto the plastic and it acts like a little ski on the concrete. Only for getting it onto a flatbed, though. Works great

Thanks for the suggestions guys, but it's a done deal. The gravel pad didn't present much resistance (the tire was half flat as well, so maybe provided a better "skid plate"), and the ramp and trailer track were fairly smooth. I aired up the tire coming off, which put a bit more torque (larger rolling radius) on the drum so it did roll off OK. We needed the arm workout on the come-along as well, so all good.