Mushy Brakes on a CJ-7

The last 3 out of 4 'rebuilt' masters I have gotten for Jeeps were bad.... I gave up and went new.

If the proportioning valve has air in it, it will be consistently 'mushy' with a pump up to hard.

If it hits the floor, the master is toast.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Dr>

The pin will need to be held in on most of them or basically held steady. There are a couple different types, some don't even have the pin.

Mike

Dr>

The brakes have to be almost adjusted perfect before the reverse adjusters will work.

If they are too loose to start, the cable won't pull far enough to click the star wheel.

Mike

Dr>

Just a thought for you.

Mine was giving me a mushy pedal after being apart for a year. It was just low and mushy though and consistent which is the trick.

I tried and tried to get the air out of the sucker and finally said screw it and opened up all the bleeders and just let them drip while keeping the master topped up.

That worked great.

Then my Cherokee pulled a low to the floor pedal.

It would just up and drop to the floor and need pumping up. I bought a new MC. Same deal. Went nuts trying to figure it until I got a scraping noise. My front wheel bearing was bad which allowed the rotor to sometimes push the brake caliper in so the first pump put the pedal right to the floor.

Then the bugger did it again to me.

I went half nuts again and for sure checked the wheel bearings.

Man it was aggravating. Finally I have a friend pumping the pedal and I noticed a bunch of movement on one caliper so I looked closer. The pad had let go from the backing plate and was warped from the heat. When the pedal was released the pad arched like a leaf spring and pushed the caliper piston in.

Mike

Dr>

I tighten them until they 'just' start to grab, then back them off a couple clicks.

I don't know about drums and bearings, but I guess once you have them adjusted and have a good pedal 'feel' you could jack up the front and reef on the wheel to see if you can get the pedal to change places for the first pump.

I know it took very little bearing play on mine to make the pad push the piston back in enough to 'suddenly' drop the pedal down. Drum brakes could be the same.

Mike

Dr>

Drink did pass the time by typing:

I just adjust the star to the point where the drums will not slide on then back off just enough to get them to go. Keeping in mind that if you have a lip around the brake drum you will still be out.

They make a tool for getting the right adjustment. Mine was plastic and got smashed or I'd put up a photo. You set one side to the maximum diameter in the drum and the other gave you a guide to set the pads with.

Ahhah.. found it

LOL!

Don't feel too bad, I got dinged the same way a bit ago which is why I mentioned about the adjuster needing to be right up for the self adjuster to go for it...

Like if you put the adjuster arm on the star wheel without having a bunch of tension on it and install the drum, the cable falls off the angle track at the half way point and the adjustment goes slack and won't self adjust.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Dr>

self-identify