The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Adjusting stock brakes - tech article...?

Hello Stovebolt Team-
Does anyone know of a tech article about how to adjust the brakes on our trucks? My brakes work great, but there's about 2" or so of travel in the pedal before the brakes grab, and I know the factory manual states about 1" is ideal. I need to do an adjustment.
I looked through the tech articles and didn't find much regarding this.

Disclaimer: Yes, I am a millennial, but quite capable of wrenching on my truck, I just want to know what I'm doing before I dive in.

When you bang your knuckles when using a brake spoon, that is the right way to tighten them.

Ed

The shop manual is the best source for that info. Very straightforward instructions.

Bleeding the brakes and adjusting them are two different operations. Bleeding makes sure there is no air in the lines. Adjusting the freeplay would be done with the piston rod length on the master cylinder. "adjusting" the normal operation that changes with wear, is done with the brake spoon mentioned with wheels off the ground. tighten the "adjusting wheel" that separates the brake shoes opposite the wheel cylinders until the rotation of the wheel gets difficult, then back off to the specified drag. Make sure all four wheels have same drag or it will pull to one side or the other when brakes are applied. As mentioned, the factory procedure is the best to follow but this is a brief summary of it.

Brake adjustment errors cannot cause a pull- - - - -never has, never will. The only thing a brake adjusted too loose can cause is a low pedal. Brakes adjusted too tight can cause overheating, and in extreme situations fire from grease running out of the wheel bearings igniting when it contacts a red hot drum.
Jerry

Having the right side adjusted looser than the left side won't make a pull to the side when brakes first hit? I get that when all shoes are engaged there would be no pull but I seem to recall from personal experience that momentary tug when one side was mis-adjusted.

All the brakes have to be in contact with the drums/discs before ANY brake can produce a stopping effect. As long as any brake is still capable of moving, no pressure can build up anywhere in the system. That's particularly true of a single-line system, but even a dual brake system will have a spongy pedal until the slack in the master cylinder is taken up and the non-working chamber of the master cylinder is out of the equation. The laws of physics are not "suggestions". If a brake is adjusted tight enough to drag, the pull will be there all the time, regardless of whether the driver has applied the brakes or not.

A flex line that is restricted or collapsed on the inside can cause a pull because pressure can build up in the brake cylinder on the opposite side from the restricted line and cause only one brake to be applied.
Jerry

I can wrap my head around that explanation in that one side could make contact but not really apply braking pressure until all eight shoes are in contact with the drums then allowing hydraulic pressure to build. That makes sense... The laws of physics, I recall a poster of Albert Einstein that read
E=Mc2...Not just a good idea, it's the law.

I will still have to hold with the idea that poor adjustment can make one side contact before the other but the contention being that true sopping power cannot take place without the pressure made possible when all four corners are engaged.

To adjust the brakes at each wheel on the 53 1/2 put the brake spoon it the slot & pull up on it from the outside. That pushes the inside part down & turns the star wheel in the correct direction to reduce the clearance between the shoe & drum on the Bendix style brakes on that modal. Turn it till you get a heavy drag & back it off about 5 clicks. If there is still some slight drag that is OK. Those shoes float in there & often have some drag & is not always the same on each wheel. They center themselves when the brakes are applied.
When these brakes are right you will have very little movement in the pedal. You just apply pressure to it.
George

Green 98 It is OK to have some travel in the system to keep pistons and cups moving some to keep them in good shape.