Rear brakes locking up?! HELP

[tiessen]

OK, here is the short. I have a SOA in rear, Dana 44 up front. Stock Master Cylinder, Dana 44 front brakes, stock rear drums, stock rear ABS. 1992 XLT, running 33's.

Brakes have always worked fine, until now. Now my rear brakes are locking up with only a small amount of braking. My 'red' E brake light comes on everytime I brake. Front and rear shoes and pads are new as of 6 months ago. I'll go home and check the shoes tonite but is there anything else I should check.

I already disconnected the rear ABS, didn't solve anything.
I checked the brake fluid, it's fine.

My ebrake has dragged before, wearing out my passenger drum fast (maybe it's done it again), but would worn brakes cause the brake light to come on?? Or is it more central like like the brake booster or master cylinder? Crap, I don't have time for this.

Thanks

Dale

 

[Gary Steeber]

Dale,
After doing my SOA my rear brakes would lock up fairly easily. I had been using the Superlift cable extenders but I don't think it extended the cable enough. I ended up making my own extenders which extended the stock cable about 4 inches, this cured my locking up problem and has not done it ever since.

 

[tiessen]

BTW, I have a Ranger xtra cab ebrake cable for the L-rear but the stock is still used for the R rear.

Cheers

Dale

 

[Gary Steeber]

Dale,
Can you disconnect the E-brake and do some test driving to see if it still locks up.
If it doesn't lock up after the E-brake is disconnected then you need to lenghten the E-brake cable, If it still lock up then your problem is elsewhere.


Good luck , Gary

 

[tiessen]

Leaking rear brake cylinder.