The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk master cyllinder ajustment

My front brakes are locking up after 20 miles, do I ajust the master cylender front rod in or out to get rid of this problem? its on 58 chev 3600. Much thanks Joe :confused:

out I'd think - needs a bit of free travel on the pedal before it starts to push the cyl, but if the rubber brake hoses at the front aren't new, they could be the problem - the inside rubber can swell and prevent fluid release

Bill

Joe, i adjust mine whichever direction gives me about 1 inch of travel in the brake pedal before it hits brakes!
this is what i do when i do brakes, in this order:
-bleed the brakes, refill the reservior
-disconnect the rear emergency brake cables
-adjust each wheel till i feel a grinding and
then back it off 14 clicks (check the manual
for your amounts)
-adjust master cyclinder rod to give me 1" of
free pedal.
-engage the emergency brake 1" and then turn the adjusting screw on each of the emergency brake cables until you take up the slack and feel the shoes hitting the drums
-hook back up the 2 rear emergency brake cables with the pin and cotter pin.
-check all four wheels to ensure there's no dragging on any of the wheels.
-check to see if you have good brake pedal (at least 3 inches before it hits the floor and also good emergency brake pedal, at least 1 inch before it hits the floor

this is all assuming you've removed the wheels and inspected the drums and brake shoes and there are no brake fluid leaks and the shoes have good pads on them and the drums and pads don't have deep grooves in them which could 'lock' the shoes to the drum.

i think that's everything :-)
tony

Thanks Bill an Tony You sent me in the right direction. Those are orginal hoses. But the truck only has 80,000 original miles, But I will replace them just for saftey reasons. I should know better at my age of 52 things do ware out.haha