advice on rear brake problem

[DaShiner]

Hi, not been on here for a while cos I thought my van has been ok for a while, but I went for the MOT yesterday thinking I would be coming out with a shiny new MOT sheet with maybe a few mentions on the advice sheet but in fact it failed pretty miserably from simple things like number plate bulbs to serious welding around the rear suspension mounts and also the passenger side seat belt anchorage which had also rusted quite badly :(

There is also a problem with the offside rear brake application being uneven, I stayed with the van throughout the MOT so I saw him do the brake test with that machine with what appears to be a brake resistance meter (big dial with numbers and a pointer), I noticed each test the pointer got up to about 6 - 7 on the dial but one of the tests on the o/s rear hardly managed to get 2 (whatever it was, was a lot lower than the rest.

My van has disks at the front and drums at the rear, what advice could you give me here please, is there things I can do to sort it out or will I have to get a new drum brake. If there is a way of sorting it could you explain, thx all ;)

[mintalkin]

it could be several things like a seized brake piston or a calapsed hose without further investigation it hard to say.

[drewtiss]

Hi, not been on here for a while cos I thought my van has been ok for a while, but I went for the MOT yesterday thinking I would be coming out with a shiny new MOT sheet with maybe a few mentions on the advice sheet but in fact it failed pretty miserably from simple things like number plate bulbs to serious welding around the rear suspension mounts and also the passenger side seat belt anchorage which had also rusted quite badly :( There is also a problem with the offside rear brake pads application being uneven, I stayed with the van throughout the MOT so I saw him do the brake test with that machine with what appears to be a brake resistance meter (big dial with numbers and a pointer), I noticed each test the pointer got up to about 6 - 7 on the dial but one of the tests on the o/s rear hardly managed to get 2 (whatever it was, was a lot lower than the rest.

My van has disks at the front and drums at the rear, what advice could you give me here please, is there things I can do to sort it out or will I have to get a new drum brake. If there is a way of sorting it could you explain, thx all ;)

Hmmm.. My first guess here is the brake piston but I'm not really sure it's so hard to tell. Anyways, how's your van doing right now?

[DaShiner]

Hmmm.. My first guess here is the brake piston but I'm not really sure it's so hard to tell. Anyways, how's your van doing right now?

at the moment its off the road as its a failure, got to put it back in the garage at partridge green on sat a.m to have the welding done and re mot. Ive done a n/s anti roll bar, that was an easy one, plus all the little blown bulbs etc, still got the brake problem and a cv boot to change plus a wishbone cos one of the bushes has gone.

By the way the rear brakes are drums, do they still have pistons??

cheers

[mintalkin]

yes the pistons operate the brake shoes. info here http://www.fordcaprilaser.co.uk/rear_brakes.htm

[DaShiner]

yes the pistons operate the brake shoes. info here http://www.fordcaprilaser.co.uk/rear_brakes.htm

I changed the cv boot and lower arm yesterday so all thats left for me to do is the brake, thanks for that link mintalkin, I'll get the wheel off sometime today (in the rain lol ) and I'll use that info you gave me to refer to if I need it, many thanks mate!

[DaShiner]

I changed the cv boot and lower arm yesterday so all thats left for me to do is the brake, thanks for that link mintalkin, I'll get the wheel off sometime today (in the rain lol ) and I'll use that info you gave me to refer to if I need it, many thanks mate!

the garage fixed it in the end because there was a problem with the handbrake adjuster underneath where whoever owned it before me overtightened it or something, it ended up costing a bit to put right but job done and Ive got a mot certificate at last ;)