Headed to town in the Grabber and then....

Was going into town with the Grabber and about 4 miles into the ride, I started to smell something funny, even though I had hot tamales for lunch yesterday I knew it wasn't me, so I pulled over and instantly knew it was the front brakes from all the smoke coming off of them, they were trying to lock up! as I was turning around it felt as if the car was actually nose diving somewhat and the rear tires were spinning in the grass, I stopped and called the flatbed to come and get me, once he got there he drove the car right up on the truck with no issues and when we unloaded it it slid right off the truck with ease, I drove it into the shop and all was great, there were no issues with the brakes at all!
What went on? could it have been the very fine coat of paint that was on the rotors burning off? would that have started to lock them up? all is new, rotors, pads, calipers, master cylinder and even rubber hoses, as it sits now the brakes seem fine.
Whatcha think?

 

what makes you think there was...paint...on the rotors...

 

Well I put a fine coat on them to delay rust issues while I worked on other stuff, and I do mean a very fine coat of cheap paint.

 

Debris in the front brake circuit of the prop valve or master cyl,not allowing the pressure to bleed off as it should. Is there paint on the calipers and brackets where the parts slide/move?? Thats a possibility (Slim) There is enough mechanicle/hyd force to overcome binding due to cooking paint but, stranger things have happened. Paint on the rotors friction surface will gum up the pads and make them thump/pulsate/screech. Depending on pad material it could cause binding.
Kinked brake line from master to prop valve not allowing pressure to drop off rapidly as it should. This and the debris scenarios will get worse as the brake fluid heats up. Seen it plenty of times with ABS equipped cars but...The problem is allways debris/corrosion in the ABS module though. Good luck man!!!

 

or... it could have been the caliper piston sticking and siezing up too.

When calipers get older.. or sit for a long time.. the piston can stick and/or cock in the bore and cause issue like that. How old are they?

 

I agree with mavman......pull your master and proportioning valve and I bet you have trash in there. Same exact thing happened to me......I spent a ton of cash before I finally found the problem.

Good luck

 

We get it after pushing in caliper pistons sometimes. It moves debris up into the system. Once it sits for a while the pressure bleeds down and the brakes free up.

 

Calipers are new, I understand about the trash causing it to not let the pressure release, thing is it's fine now and yes that can be because the "plug" has moved, i'm taking it for another drive today and will see what goes on, it does stop amazingly well and really feels alot like my newer F150's four wheel disc setup , I really think it was the paint burning off and smelling, that caused the rotors to overheat and the build up of paint on the hot pads caused them to stick, at any rate I will pull the wheels and take a look at the rotors and pads, and after another drive will know a bit more, for sure I will take into account the trash plugging up and opening and not letting it release, I bled them down and had "new" brake fluid flowing but there still could be trash from the old metal lines coming loose from the pressure, the kind of pressure I'm almost certain it hasn't seen in many many years.

 

If you replaced your master cylinder, make sure that there is a small amount of play between the actuating rod and the cylinder piston. If the piston is pushed in slightly, the compensating port will be closed off and the fluid cannot return to the cylinder!
Also you should have removed all traces of the paint on the rotors. You may have to take off your pads and clean both them and the rotors. Paint turns to gum when it gets hot.

 

This could be it!!, I do have very little free play in the pedal when applying the brakes, and there are longer rods out there that I may have gotten ahold of, this I will definately check out as it seems to be something questionable as the pedal freeplay indicates there is maybe a half inch before actuation of the M/C .

Now tell me why I don't have a working speedometer and fuel gauge and I'll be set!

 

car not moving...dead battery...

 

Unfortunately not that easy, didn't get to look at it today as I hoped I would, had to take cable box in and exchange it so I would have my DVR back, don't the speedometer cable for the Mavericks work in a four speed toploader?

 

Another issue I failed to mention is the brake lights are staying on all the time, couldn't this also be caused by too long of a pushrod?

 

Umm, that is more likely to be caused by your brake pedal being depressed further than it should be. The pedal has to be pushing against the brake indicator switch, so something would have to be preventing the pedal from travelling all the way back to it's natural home position... which would imo not be possible with too long of a push rod. You would be more likely to get the opposite effect, not being able to push the pedal in far enough to detent the switch.

At least, if I remember the activation of that switch correctly. I don't have the drawings in front of me right now.

Is it possible your brake pedal itself is adjusted incorrectly?

If your brake pedal was adjusted too far inward it would be the same effect as too long of a pushrod, and depress the brake light switch.

TL/DR - Check your brake pedal itself, push rod may be a red herring.

 

If the pusrod is too long and the pedal comes back to the end range of its sweep and the pushrod is still depressed it would cause the brakes to be applied as well as the brake light switch to be applied also wouldn't it?