92 4x4 f150 I6 auto 355 gears. new brakes. was driving on an icey road yesterday, went to stop, was doing about 10-15mph or less in 1st barely pressed the brakes and the fronts would lock up and the back wouldnt. and because the backs didnt they about pushed me into the ditch, when i pul the petal to the floor it finally locked the backs up and i stopped, i noticed this when i bought the truck and i was backing up on gravel, and i was slowing down riding the brake a little and the fronts locked, and aslo i just noticed a slight fluid residue on the rear axle where the brake line t's off, it is coming out of the (bleed valve??) where a hose is suposed to connect.????

is this normal or what do i need to do?i've blead the lines and no air??

 

If you are saying you did all 4 wheels then there is some adjustment the rears do assuming they are self adjusting
I would never take any vehicle out that I had done any brake work on in icy conditions for that reason
If the situation self corrected then that would be my guess
Did the ABS or BRAKE light come on?

Try again on clear dry streets Your truck should have rear anti lock so they should never lock
If your fronts lock easily I would suspect something in proportioning valve under the master cylinder
Where are you located?

What kind of pedal do you have?

 

Yes, you may have brake issues. Were the brakes acting normally before the ice? Also, you mention putting the pedal to the floor - this is certainly not normal and would suggest that the rear shoes are not dialed out as they should be, or that you have air in the system. The pedal really shouldn't go down more than about an inch or so - certainly nowheres near the floor.

Just to relate my experience - if I have it in 2WD on ice, a light touch of the brakes will lock the fronts but not the rears - leading to some excitement if one is not ready for it. Heavier pressure will lock all wheels. I'm guessing this is due to the torque from the engine being strong enough to overcome the light braking pressure on the rears, of course the undriven fronts won't take much at all to lock on ice. Putting it in 4WD alleviates this issue. I suppose another solution would be to pop the tranny in neutral - but that requires too much thinking - especially with all the other awareness needed for ice.

Not sure how good the rear-wheel-only ABS works. Mine self-tests fine - the ABS light comes on when starting, no warning lamps on during driving - but I can't recall any time that I've felt the ABS activate.

As to your residue - are you sure that's not the axle vent hose fitting?

 

the leak on the axle is where the vent is and if theres no hose, there should be. i also agree that you have air in the system or your rears are out of adjustment.

 

Wde3477 your experieance is exactly the one i had, as far as to the floor, i just ment pushing it down hard not litterally to the floor. my ABS self test fine also, NO brake lights come on,
and it has been doing this before, but just on gravel, where their is lack of traction, on dry pavement it stops fine.
and i did the brakes back in oct, of this year. maybe i'll just have to run it in 4high when the road conditions are icy. i locked it in 4high after reading the post and went out and the fronts didnt lock like they were..
as far as the vent yes there is a hose there but it is dry roted and i have not got around to replacing it yet.
maybe i'll have to get new rear drums, AUTOZONE said they were fine after they shaved them but we all know how they are

 

If the drums looked fine after turning by AutoZone, then they likely are OK. Can't say I've ever had a drum-turning turn out bad. If they did get things out of round, you would feel a pulsing on the pedal. A quick inspection of the shoes should reveal a contact pattern across the full width of the shoe. You may not see wear across the full length quite yet with relatively new shoes due to small differences in the effective diameter of the shoe and the actual diameter of the drum. This should eventually wear in. Hopefully they did not turn the drum beyond the maximum allowable diameter stamped on the drum - they're not supposed to.

What I was getting at is that the star-wheel adjuster may need dialed out more to get the shoes closer to the drum so that not so much pedal movement is needed.

I'll try to get things close by manually dialing things out, then make some runs up-and-down the street in reverse, romping on the brakes so that the self-adjust mechanism brings things the rest of the way in. I have a tendency to over-adjust, and this method seems to be a good compromise so that I don't end up with shoes dragging. Of course, this method also means that the star-wheel needs to be in good shape, and that the adjusting cable and hardware need to be in place. Not a bad idea to get a drum hardware kit and to just replace everything on older trucks - fresh springs, cable, and clips. Also, running up and down the street in reverse is a good way to keep the neighbors on their toes, thinking, "that boy just ain't wired right" :-)

 

I don't know if you did this but when I change out the shoes on a drum brake system I alway replace all of the hardware as well, that is the hold down springs and retainers, retraction springs, the self adjuster cables and retention clips etc. This is cheap insurance. I also inspect the wheel cylinders, if the vehicle has a lot of years on it I will change out the wheel cylinders, again cheap insurance. Be sure to inspect your master cylinder (MS), they are very deceptive you can not always tell if they are leaking because the area where they leak in hidden inside where the MS bolts on the the booster unit. I have had air get into MS with out much fluid loss. The only way to inspect this area is to remove the bolts that hold the MS to the booster and look for fluid coming out, look at the picture below, you do not have to undo the brake lines there is enough flexibility to see into this area.

The wheel cylinders are $8.99 dollars each
The all in one kit is $6.99
The self adjuster kit is $5.99 each, one per wheel

 

Like both inputs from wde3477 and transmaster. As my neighbors already know, I'm not wired right, so I don't give them the excuse to call the police. I adjust rear brakes with self adjusting stuff using a homemade tool out of a coat hangar. Bend one end into a circle for a handle. Cut the hangar about 10" long. Make a slight bend. This end will be inserted into the adj hole and go over the star adjuster and make contact with the lever. Press slightly to disengage the lever from the star wheel. This will alow the star adjuster to turn backwards. Old pre self adjusting brakes, back off 6 clicks. Self adjusting brakes back off 10-12 clicks. Do both wheels the same amount and with tranny in neutral both wheels should rotate with same pressure. If braking system is good this adjustment will ensure rear brake application. Thank God for 4 wheel disc brakes. Self adjusting brakes work in theory only. Basically they suck.

 

The front brakes do 70 percent of the braking. The rear drums won't lock up as easy.