Builds A New 55 Owner Intro (cgn1976 thread) (3 Viewers)

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Megadoomer said:
I am assuming you have coarse spline because you are drummed. The man a fre kit works with that. If you go mini truck or later Toyota you are changing your birfs, lockers and a few other things.

The hydro is probably not worth it if you dont have power steering already. Unless you want PS then I would do it in a heart beat.
The Monte Carlo kit seems plug n play, but I do not know because I have a dana44 rear end and have a different disc setup.
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I actually have PS. PO put it in...Saginaw though. Works good anyhow. More research and more money to save! Probably down the line a bit before I get there. Close to making this all work!

BTW, second test drive and the pedal was slightly higher than earlier when I started after todays work, but still in a good place & totally drivable. Everything working good. Gonna back the pin off again and try a long drive again and see what happens.
 
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Since I'm writing so damn much on this stupid issue, why stop now? Just went for a half hour outing. Got in and the pedal was good. Breaking perfect. Within 20 min, pedal hard...no play before they engaged. At one pioint while they started dragging a tad. Made it home. Went underneath, no leaks anywhere.

Marked the levels on the resevoirs while it was warm. Curious to see what happens there as it cools. Seems the 40 thread where the guy had pretty similar issue required him replacing the hard lines. He had gone through and pretty much replaced everything else first like I have. Never heard back from the guy on here who supposedly sells 55 lbent line sets. Not excited about doing the lines for the entire truck.

Think I'm gonna suck it up and buy another master first. If that solves it, I can maybe get some credit back from the seller..they alluded to this when I spoke to them the other day. Seems I can run it for about 15 min without any issue at this point, so short runs in the hood for now!

The good news is the engine is HUMMING and I fixed the stupid transfer case shifter rattle with a cut up modifed new rubber inner boot. So close!!!!!!!
 
With a disclaimer that I am struggling with brake issues on my 80, I am not sure I get how a bad MC would cause brakes to tighten(?) For me, I have the opposite problem and am currently focused there. I am waiting to get a pair of m10x1 plugs to first plug both outlets to test the MC, then bleed and test front and back circuits individually.

Have you adjusted or touched the pushrod, grasping at a straw here, but if that is too tight, perhaps it could be a contributing factor?
 
I think this issue is separate from the, soft pedal “air in the lines” issue. The hard lines aren’t going to contribute to this problem unless they were kinked or possibly plugged, which I think you can rule out after two weeks of brake bleeding.

We may need to start working out a process of elimination, I.E. separate the rear from the front, front from the master, and see if we can pinpoint where it’s screwing up. You said the pedal will begin to stiffen up even while sitting still? I’m thinking all corners on jack stands, tires and drums removed. Place something to hold the shoes like a big C-Clamp or go around the circumference with a ratchet strap. Note where the cylinders are when everything is at rest. Fire it up, pump the brakes a few times until it starts getting stiff and see if you can note a difference in just one cylinder, or all cylinders.

This is an on-the-fly idea, if anyone else catches where I’m going with this and has a better idea, by all means....
 
Calgary40 said:
With a disclaimer that I am struggling with brake issues on my 80, I am not sure I get how a bad MC would cause brakes to tighten(?) For me, I have the opposite problem and am currently focused there. I am waiting to get a pair of m10x1 plugs to first plug both outlets to test the MC, then bleed and test front and back circuits individually.

Have you adjusted or touched the pushrod, grasping at a straw here, but if that is too tight, perhaps it could be a contributing factor?
Click to expand...
80 series brakes SUCK, always feel soft 🤨
 
Loving the ideas guys. Thx as always. Let me see if I can clarify it a tad better, although I think where Rush is going makes sense in trying to isolate the issue.

So when I get in, the pedal has a great feel. A little give but firm before the floor. Feels like it did before anything went wrong and all was working. I driv a few minutes and about 10 min in, I can feel the pedal push back higher...or where the brakes start to press the drums takes less pedal travel to get to. By 20 minutes, there is almost zero give. The pedal is not completely hard, but damn near. Tiny touch, shoes hit the drums and active hard. Today sitting for 5 min with it running waiting for someone, they got even tighter and began to drag pretty good. Once I started moving again, the drag stopped but the super high pedal persisted until I got home. If I let it totally cool down, it will feel just like it was before I ran it. Perfect pedal for about 5-10 min.

Again, I totally had the cylinders adjusted wrong due to being a noob and also the cylinders being too narrow for the shoes ( filed and fixed that). That is solved.

I have adjusted the booster pin at least 20 times. Literally!!! Three times more today. I actually tried today to back it off a tad and the pedal was way too low. This was before it warmed up and started increasing pedal activation height, for lack of a better term. Drive around the block, and put it where I'm convinced is correct.
 
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Sorry posted by accident before I finished.my thought. Calgary, you're probably right about the cylinder not being the issue. The booster and the MC are both new and went in at the same time. Just realizing but I can say 💯 this pedal tighteng thing started after those two parts went in....before the new cylinders! Not sure why I didn't think of this before but 2 weekends ago on my beer run, I had this exact pedal thing happen the first time. That time my brake cylinder s were so tight to start with, I actually locked fully and had to go under and loosen the cylinder nuts just to limp home.

Tells me MC or booster! I pulled the trigger on the MC because I read about the seals in there maybe getting jacked up by over pressing it while bench bleeding...this was a general internet thing and not LC specific but I could see it..it was my first bench bleed ever. I could have totally done that. If that's not it, I'll sell it at a loss or have a back up.

If that's not it, booster 2 I guess. Gonna put a new vac line on it asap too.

Baby steps!
 
Just getting a chance to read in here...

You asked if anyone rebuilds their MCs, I have opened mine up and cleaned the sludge off the bottom of the bores after I saw the nasty, pitted bore in the MC my 40 came with. I did this in my Pig a few years back if you want to go through my build thread. I went through my 40's MC over the weekend and took a few pictures. I can post those up.

Speaking of MC bores, did you ever compare your old MC and new MC bore sizes?

I think you mentioned that you took a copper colored bolt out of the middle of the MC and fluid came out, eh? The purpose of that bolt is to keep the plunger for the front brake circuit in a specific range of the bore. This is a 2-circuit MC, eh? I wonder if that front plunger is still in the correct place? When I reassemble my MC, I clean the bore and then lube the seals on the plunger w/ brake fluid and then drop in the pieces in reverse order of how they came out. I take a ratchet extension to depress that front plunger all the way, and then thread in that retainer bolt?

Make sense? It might not. Pictures might help...
 
Totally makes sense Pablo....I didn't open it much, just cracked it a tad and a few drops came out. Not sure what the hell I was doing or thinking when I did that. I will say the first total lock up happened before I touched that bolt... That said, still worth a try I think
 
Cgn1976 said:
Totally makes sense Pablo....I didn't open it much, just cracked it a tad and a few drops came out. Not sure what the hell I was doing or thinking when I did that. I will say the first total lock up happened before I touched that bolt... That said, still worth a try I think
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Have you compared bore sizes?
 
PabloCruise said:
Have you compared bore sizes?
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Both 1

20210421_200559.jpg


20210421_200815.jpg
 
scrapdaddy said:
Read up on Residual Valves, I really think it's acting up in your master.
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Lol. Was doing exactly that earlier...that's what made me go and just order another new MC...going with your throw 💰💰 💰 at it ideology...that and getting news of a quarterly work bonus today made it an easier pill to swallow!

It does make sense the more I think about it. The more I press the pedal the more pressure goes into the lines but can't fully return fast enough...if it sits long enough, it eventually get back to it's resting state. That's my current theory anyway! Could it be because it opened the bolt on the side? Probably! Lol that or screwed it up before I bench bled it...or something totally different.

So how long till this monkey types a novel? Hah
 
RUSH55 said:
Sounds like the master cylinder possibly isn’t relieving. Don’t remember if you replaced the master or not...
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scrapdaddy said:
Read up on Residual Valves, I really think it's acting up in your master.
Click to expand...

Wish I had a more clear vocabulary sometimes - this was what I was attempting to refer to way back 4 pages ago.

These things. Did the new master not come with new ones?

9237C262-EE87-4FFE-9F41-BAFD02863D12.jpeg
 
Maybe not. Cruiser Outfitters refers to them as sensors, for what exactly I’m not really sure. The residual valve/valving by my understanding is the pathway/method by which fluid returns back into the master after releasing the brake pedal. If it doesn’t work, then you get continual pressure build up. Not sure why you would have that issue with a new master, but everything is pointing in that direction.

C7DDD596-BB66-4B2D-935E-9514761332C5.jpeg
 
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