texasfisherdude

This is my first Cherokee so I'm not sure what to expect but non abs brakes should put you on the hood if you slam on the brakes i would think. My issue is it seems the front brakes are not working as well as they should. New rotor pads and 1 caliper (was sticking) new shoes on the rear. How well do they stop when they work well ?

fb97xj1

What issues are you having? Slamming on the brakes should only be done in emergency situations. Its bad for the tires, and you can lose control of the vehicle if the brakes lock up. It should take very little effort to bring a vehicle to a safe stop under normal driving conditions.

texasfisherdude

it stops fine just seems soft in the pedal. after working on I like to test it and it just didnt feel right. felt like it was stopping with the rear brakes to much not enough nose dive for lack of a better description

freegdr

Year ?

4WD4EVER

All things being equal ( pads/rotors in good shape, no air in system, etc) it typically will feel soft, especially if it's not your daily driver. When I do get mine out it always takes awhile for me to adjust to the feel.

There are vendors on here that sell kits to convert the rears to disc for improving the braking abilities and it's a fairly straightforward and cost-effective route.

IJM

You've replaced both the front rotors and pads, correct? Did you flush or bleed the fluid? What kind of pads? I suspect you're experiencing poor bite from the front pads because the braking surfaces are new and not yet bedded in. Serach online for brake bedding procedure and see if that helps.

IJM

Using good pads with relatively high levels of friction helps tremendously. I've been very happy with Hawk LTS pads on my cherokee.

texasfisherdude

its a 1991. I'll bleed the brakes again and check for swelling in the rubber brake lines after the 4th and put some time on it to see if it changes. Also it looks to have a newer mc (no rust on it ) and the fluid looks clean. As for the pads they came with the rotors

cruiser54

Have you adjusted the rear brake shoes? Inspected them?

caged

91 has the smaller brake booster.
what size tires are on the jeep? if they are oversized, you may want to look into doing the dual diaphragm wj booster upgrade.

texasfisherdude

235/75/15 new shoes in rear adjusted

extrashaky

The brakes on mine have always been wimpy compared to just about everything else I've driven, even on the day I drove it off the lot with 6 miles on the clock. I just figured it was a characteristic of XJs for the brakes to suck.

texasfisherdude

could be thats why I asked. hard to fix what was bad from the get go. Had a 84 vett that had horrible brakes was the nature of the beast

IJM

Good pads make a big difference.

freegdr

Cure..Booster upgrade...