Bangarang

Ladies and Gents,

I need your assistance. So I changed out my rear drum pads and all was well for about 500 miles until my parking break light went on and my brake pedal spongy. I tried to bleed the brakes but no fluid was coming out so I changed out the wheel cylinders and played with the proportional valve until I got fluid out the back.

Now, the brakes are still spongy sometimes and the parking brake light turns on and off. So if I'm stopping from 40-20 or 30-10 at a moderate pace the light turned off, but if I cont stopping to zero the brake sinks in and the parking brake light turns on.

Do you think there is air in the system or do you think some hardware has gone bad? No leak either. Thanks.

freegdr

Adjusted rears properly ?

Cheddarnut

.Also you may have the emergency brake adjusted improperly allowing the parking brake to engage the drum. There is a tensioner if you follow the cables back towards the handle. That will not cause a spongy pedal but may trigger the light. Did you have someone helping you do the bleed? Usually spongy pedal means you have air if you are sure there is no leaking. There are a couple of good threads and here and YouTube videos on adjusting the drums and The second link is to a thread here about one man brake bleeding.


https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/ble...es-solo-40980/

Bangarang

Thanks guys. I watched the video and I'm good to go on that from when I swapped the drums. I ALMOST got in big trouble as I installed the adjuster screw on the wrong side (glad I caught that).

So UPDATE: Today I took it out for another drive and the parking light clicked off and the brakes are tight again. I don't want to say all is well yet, but maybe there was an air bubble in there that worked it's way out?!? Fingers crossed as I was troubleshooting this all frickin day Saturday.

Bangarang

UPDATE 2: Still going strong. I was at a stop downhill for a few minutes yesterday and the parking brake light went back on, but quickly letting on and off the brake and turned it off. I'll probably bleed it again when I get a free minute, but everything is nice the tight now! Hope the master cylinder isn't going or anything.

Cheddarnut

Really sounds like you've got the e brake adjusted too tight. Air was likely the culprit on the spongy issue, but what described sounds like it's just too tight on the drums. How is it when you pull the e brake handle?

skife

does the vehicle have ABS?

If it does, bleed the system in front of the ABS pump, pump the pedal and crack the fitting, i've had similar problems on a few different vehicles.

Bangarang

I didn't adjust the cable when I replaced the drum shoes but I did replace the internals. The ebrake pulls up normally and will crank to the top. I'll check it out when I get a second though thanks.


Sweet dude, I don't have ABS but I'll be sure to spread the word to anyone who does and experiencing this problem!

Larry's XJ

If the resi got low you might have got air in the front calis.
Rrear, Lrear, Rfront, Lfront is proper order

RTorrez1

When you bleed the system are you bleeding it in the right order. You need to start at the rear passenger, rear drivers, front passenger, front drivers.

Bangarang

Thanks guys. I did bleed it in the right order. I think some air slipped in when I was playing with the proportional valve. Haven't checked the ebrake cables though since I'm currently working on another issue

Cheddarnut

That is the way it goes. I have a bench dedicated to parts and random projects on mine. It's never empty.