Alright, gear heads, this is a new one for me.
87 wagoneer limited, Dana 30/35
When I press the brakes, I near enough need to stand on them to get anything done. Since I can't hear/see any vacuum leak at the booster, I'm going to go ahead and say that I should bleed the brakes and give it another go. Easy enough.

My major issue is the grinding and jerking when I jump on the brakes. The jerking is not consistent. It's a craps shoot as to which side it will jerk to or whether it'll happen at all. I've checked all 4 brakes and they all have smooth drum/rotor surfaces and at least 1/2 the brake material left. Didn't take pics of the fronts, but here are the rears. It sound and feels like it's coming from the rear, but who knows.
Any idea where I should start looking? I'm kind of baffled...

 

Adjust your rear shoes.

 

Of course it was something so simple... When I did the rears, I did adjust them, but when I looked at them last night, the driver's side shoes weren't even close. Now that they're adjusted, much better.
Shouldn't they self-adjust as they wear? Or do I need to check them regularly?

 

Half the time the self adjuster don't work. you are better off checking them every so often or when ever they don't feel right.

 

This^^.

 

You see, I can come up with a few good idea's. And I already had a few drinks or should I say several...

 

Your self-adjuster pin and star wheel should be clean and dry on the threads. They should turn very easily when they are off the brake shoes.

Safely backing up at a good clip and applying the brakes medium hard a couple of times every once in a while should keep them adjusted.

 

I think it tunes you up!!!

 

letinsh, please try this. With the engine running, feel the petal. Close your eyes, go to a happy Zen place, (with RT), and gauge how the pedal feels. NOW, hold your foot down firm, and shift from drive to reverse four or five times. (so the brake shoes pull back and forth on their mount's, working the auto-adjust lever on the star wheel). Now feel it again. Any change?

 

Have you checked the condition of your brake fluid recently? Pull the cover off your master cylinder, if it looks like pudding in there...

 

After rears are adjusted properly. The jerking/pulling issues gonna be the front causing that. Have you ever replaced the front rubber brake lines ?

 

Not only that. If you have loose/worn steering components with excessive slack, they can cause a pull when braking.

 

"If" this problem persist, My question is do you have ABS on that thing?
Pulling ,jerking, hard pedal are some of the symptoms of ABS failure on the old RENIX model.

 

Thanks for all the awesome replies. As I mentioned to cruiser54 in my build thread, my wife is leaving the country for 3 weeks in July so the heep's going up on blocks and getting some attention. Before all this popped off, I already had plans to upgrade to a zj booster and master cylinder, replace those aforementioned front rubber brake lines, flush the system and bleed the brakes. My other want is to swap out a Durango steering box with mine, because mine leaks and is sloppy.

So to answer some questions, yes, I'm swapping my brake lines; yes, the fluid in my master cylinder has a distinct mud color to it (rust in the lines?) The slop in my steering is in the box (if you check my build thread, the rest of the steering is new).

I guess what I've learned is that I should perform these upgrades and maintenance and then chase my phantoms!
Thanks, again, for all the suggestions!

Oh, yeah. No, I don't have ABS.