'88 Bronco Problem with Brakes

The best site (imo) on the Internet for Fords is

Click on the "Forums" button in the upperrright hand corner of the page. Then find the two Bronco forums. One is forEarly Broncos (66-77) and the other for Big Broncos (78-96). I guarantee youwill find the information you are looking for there. Make him take you outto dinner for this good lead. Good luck, Angela.jor

There are a number of 'round things' behind the tires, all of which are important to be functioning correctly and in good condition. Two of these are the brake drums.....these are the surfaces that the brake shoes 'ride' against to make the brake shoes stop the vehicle. Another important 'round thing' in there are the wheel-cylinders. These are the hydraulic operators that actuate the shoes.

Realiably operating brakes are fairly IMPORTANT to driving safely on the public highways. Very bad things can happen if the vehicle doesn't have a good brake system. Apparently your DIY'er doesn't have much of a clue about what he's doing and should not be attempting to fix something he has no experience with.....especially with the brake system. I strongly suggest the Bronco be looked at/fixed by a professional mechanic. Trying to pinch a few pennys at the expense of.....who knows what?.....isn't very wise. Bite the bullit and pay for a brake job! Everyone should know their limitations....

Sorry to be so abrupt, but....

Dave S(Texas)

Thanks much for the link; I'll check it out.

LOL! :) Reminded me of Bill Hicks.

Yeah what she said. :)

That's been my experience exactly! :/

I have to jump you about one thing tho, doing it yourself when you don't really want to is where the problem is with the professionals.

That's where I've got 'em all whipped, I -like- working on my old pickup. ('75 F150, ordered it with a very odd list of options;)

But... if both of you get on the internet and take some interest in maintaining your vehicles sort of like a new hobby you guys will get rid of the feeling like you're between a rock and a hard place.

Sort of like the folks at ramva do about their old junky VWs.

Your advantage here is your vehicles won't need anywhere near the level of attention that old 40's engeneered VW needs! :) BTDT from both sides and sorta miss (fixing!) my old '67 bug. :/

I'm not a "forums guy" so don't know nuthin about those. :/

Alvin in AZ

'88 Bronco Problem with Brakes Group: alt.trucks.ford Date: Sat, Oct 4, 2003, 1:36pm (CDT+5) From: snipped-for-privacy@verizon.net (Ang) Can anyone point me towards any resources that deal with brake installation/repair on older full-size Broncos? My husband asked me to see what I could find online. My level of expertise with vehicle maintenance is nil, but here's what I understand of the problem..... A couple weeks ago, the Bronco's brakes locked up. He drained/replaced the fluid and installed new brakes. Since then the Bronco's not been driven much, but yesterday he drove it to a job site and the (new) brakes again locked up. The "locking up" is accompanied by excessive heat and the vehicle won't move until the brakes are cooled down. Also, I believe some brake light inside the vehicle comes on and stays on. Last night, he yanked the back tires; I meandered down and had a look. He was muttering (and cussing) something about those round things behind the tires (brake pads??) being all "ate" up. They were black-looking and I was supposed to smell some odor. He has a couple Bronco repair manuals, but I was hoping to find something online that might help him. For Ford trucks, I've only been able to find things about brake conversion, but nothing much about general troubleshooting and repair. Any suggestions or links to online articles would be appreciate. Regards, Angela .

$25 a year

ALLDATA LLC - Leader in Automotive Information Address:

You're making this sound like he never did a brake job before, ever. Rather than to probe that further, I'll just add 2 things:

1. Maybe the parking brake cable locked up. Does he use the parking brake? Maybe it's time to stop. 2. I personally have not heard of a drum brake wheel cylinder locking up. I have a bunch of junk cars, and I see frozen front calipers on many of them, but never on the rear drums. If you put them together right they are usually okay unless see #1.

sounds like the rubber hose that goes from the body to the junction block on the rear has seperated and is suffering from an internal collapse when the brakes are applied. pressure will slowly release as it sits, causing it to be driveable again till the brakes are re applied

Fine! Was only attempting to help....do what you like, you won't be bothered with me again

shudder.... ME, work on trucks? oh no. Not interested. I stay out of his garage, and he stays out of my kitchen.

Funny, you mention VW's though. My husband used to restore VW's with his dad. He loves bugs. Whenever we're driving and see a VW, I get to listen to a blow-by-blow listing of its features (unless it's one of those new ones, and then I get to listen to what pieces of crap they are.) The split rear window one is a favorite.

Regards.

You know, I appreciate that you took the time to respond. However, your reply sounded like you were calling both my husband and myself morons. (I'd venture to say that most of this country's populace realizes that brakes enable vehicles to stop and that operating a vehicle without properly functioning brakes is unwise. I really didn't need you to point that out to me.) I have "zero" knowledge when it comes to vehicle repair; my interest in vehicles doesn't extend beyond sticking the nozzle in the gas tank when my truck needs a refill; that doesn't mean I'm a moron. And just because I don't have the knowledge or the inclination to be an expert on vehicle repair, it's rather hasty of you to decide that both of us are idiots and then address me as such. So please don't assume that because I am not immediately conversant in the terminology and concepts of repairing trucks that I'm an imbecile. I have my own areas of knowledge in which I am competent. For example, I am quite competent at repairing electronics and suspect I could run circles around you if you needed to troubleshoot your television so you could continue to hook up to webtv. (Note: It is my personal opinion that anyone who selects webtv as a tool to access the internet is a moron. Out of courtesy, I don't normally point that out to them. ....unless provoked.)

Thanks Joe. Yeah, they did lock up and then some; it's kind of interesting that he was able to get the thing home. ..."putting them together right" ended up being the problem.

I'm feeling a little defensive after Putt of webtv fame twisted my panties in a wad: the husband's done brake jobs before; for example he redid my Ranger brakes when they needed it, and I haven't had a problem. My initial post sounded ignorant because I'm pretty much ignorant about how vehicles function and quite frankly don't have the time or desire to get educated. ...that's what men are for.

Anyway, he's figured out the problem, now that he had time to take everything apart and have a look. ...and I must abashedly admit to you all that he screwed up. I forgive him though; when he did that repair job it was after work (1900-ish) and he went to bed around 0200 in the morning on a work night and then had to get up to go on-site a couple hours later. The metal brake pads are marked with L and R in eensy-teensy letters. And he installed them on the wrong sides (i.e., L on right and R on left). Looking at the pan o' parts, some things got cooked pretty good down there. hmph, guess he's learned a thing or two, eh? Thanks again.

You're about to... ;)

Old VW's do it sometimes. I should of thought of the problem with the collapsing rubber brake hose but forgot about it. :/ Learned about it on ramva years ago.

Putting the parts together wrong will do it too, I hear tell. ;)

"getting in a hurry takes me longer" -alvin

Alvin in AZ ps- AOL, webtv or verizon don't matter it's a cross section anyway pps- unix and a shell account is what I use, I should be a sharp guy right? Wrong. :/ My son set it up for me. :) (tin+pico) ppps- I'm the dumbest guy on this newsgroup so if you don't like someone you could say "yeah, and -you're- almost as dumb as that shit-head alvin too! :/"

~~~~ Ang, after reading your last comment in this post... I would like to detract my contribution to your cause.

Scrib Abell ~~takes a slug from the bottle....wipes his lips with his shirt sleeve....and mumbles something about a "ditch"........~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (read on .....to see what got ole Scribs dander up) snipped-for-privacy@verizon.net (Ang)....... backhands put@webtv with this reply....and in the process hits ole Scrib by accident....

You know, I appreciate that you took the time to respond. However, your reply sounded like you were calling both my husband and myself morons. (I'd venture to say that most of this country's populace realizes that brakes enable vehicles to stop and that operating a vehicle without properly functioning brakes is unwise. I really didn't need you to point that out to me.) I have "zero" knowledge when it comes to vehicle repair; my interest in vehicles doesn't extend beyond sticking the nozzle in the gas tank when my truck needs a refill; that doesn't mean I'm a moron. And just because I don't have the knowledge or the inclination to be an expert on vehicle repair, it's rather hasty of you to decide that both of us are idiots and then address me as such. So please don't assume that because I am not immediately conversant in the terminology and concepts of repairing trucks that I'm an imbecile. I have my own areas of knowledge in which I am competent.

For example, I am quite competent at repairing electronics and suspect I could run circles around you if you needed to troubleshoot your television so you could continue to hook up to webtv.

(Note: It is my personal opinion that anyone who selects webtv as a tool to access the internet is a moron. Out of courtesy, I don't normally point that out to them. ....unless provoked.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fine! Was only attempting to help....do what you like, you won't be bothered with me again!!

~~

Re: '88 Bronco Problem with Brakes Group: alt.trucks.ford Date: Sun, Oct 5, 2003, 3:09am (CDT+5) From: snipped-for-privacy@verizon.net (Ang)

Thanks Joe

Yeah, they did lock up and then some; it's kind of interesting that he was able to get the thing home. ..."putting them together right" ended up being the problem.

I'm feeling a little defensive after Putt of webtv fame twisted my panties in a wad: the husband's done brake jobs before; for example he redid my Ranger brakes when they needed it, and I haven't had a problem.

My initial post sounded ignorant because I'm pretty much ignorant about how vehicles function and quite frankly don't have the time or desire to get educated. ...that's what men are for.

Anyway, he's figured out the problem, now that he had time to take everything apart and have a look. ...and I must abashedly admit to you all that he screwed up. I forgive him though; when he did that repair job it was after work (1900-ish) and he went to bed around 0200 in the morning on a work night and then had to get up to go on-site a couple hours later.

The metal brake pads are marked with L and R in eensy-teensy letters. And he installed them on the wrong sides (i.e., L on right and R on left). Looking at the pan o' parts, some things got cooked pretty good down there. hmph, guess he's learned a thing or two, eh?

Thanks again. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Percy Veerance has finnished another challenging job.

Ang, I hope you "pay him well" for all his manly dedication. :)

. ..

0 0 ( O

sounds like he earned it.... glad to hear it worked out well.

scrib abell

Yep, that was sure enough dumb of her alright but where is your post with all that help you're "detracting", Scrib? :/ You got an alias? :)

Alvin in AZ

Hey Angela, My daughter was having similar problems with her Aerostar. After a short period of normal driving, the brakes would not let off. I went there and looked it over, and ultimately replaced the ruined front brake pads and the master cylinder. Also (don't neglect doing this) we bled the entire braking system, refilling with new fluid as we went. I used synthetic brake fluid and used about a quart and a half. After the master cylinder is replaced, fill it with the new fluid and start by bleeding the right rear first. Bleed that brake by pumping the brake pedal, hold it while your husband opens the bleeder and don't let up until he has the bleeder closed again. Repeat and di this until clean fluid comes out then move to the left rear, repeating the process until clean fluid comes out there too. Move around to each brake and do this until all brakes are bled and you'll have nice clean fluid in your system. The theory is that you start with the wheel furthest from the master cylinder and conclude at the wheel closest to the master cylinder. I do this on my Broncos and my wifes' f-150 every other year, just as a maintenance precaution. With the heat that's been present in your (especially front) brake system, the fluid has probably boiled and is contaminated. If those brakes have gotten REALLY hot, you may end up replacing the calipers and /or wheel cylinders too. The seals and boots contained in those parts are made of neoprene or viton but thay can only tolerate so much heat for a given time. General notes & commentary: Brake fluid is hygroscopic: that means it's very dry. It absorbs moisture from wherever it can until it becomes saturated with moisture. When that happens, sludge and acids begin to develop and steel parts begin to rust. The only way to get rid of the moisture is to bleed the contaminated fluid out and introduce fresh dry fluid IN. We're all so concerned with making sure our engine oil is changed every

3-5K miles, yet totally neglect the most impotant system ON the vehicle... Our Brakes!! Go figure......(off soapbox)

Good Luck with it Ang, and let us know how you make out!

Randy '94 Bronco EB '95 Bronco XLT '96 Bronco XL (son's) '98 F150 STX (wife's) Yep, we're BRONCO people around here:-)

HI Angie, Email me,I'll tell you a secret about brakes they don't want you to know! Thanks Bobby( snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net)

Why don't you do a public reply and share the BIG secret with all of us.

John