The brake gods must be frowning on me! Here's the deal, I just got my jeep rollin today and after a short test drive I pull into the driveway and my brakes are smoking! After I pulled everything apart I find that my brakes are waaay tight. WTF? I loosen up the star udjusters and put the rear end up on jack stands. Put it in gear and spin my rear wheels then hit the brakes a few times....they get way tight again! I didn't even put it in reverse to tighten the adjusters! I"m out of ideas:mad: ......help me out.

I have heard, but don't quote me, that those Currie 60's really are quite partial to MT/R's. Perhaps you could buy a set and see if that fixes it. :p


Are you positive that nothing is reversed? Have you driven it before and all was okay until this time around?

Is the e-brake hanging up?

Thanks for the humor:flipoff2: I was pretty pissed when I posted that. No I haven't driven it before with this rearend. And the star adjusters are marked right and left...checked that already. But it seems like that could be the problem. I hit the brakes and the drag just makes the things tighter and tighter and then doesn't let them return:confused: Keep the ideas coming...I need to drive this thing:rasta:

check to see if the pads are on the right sides. there is a primary pad and a secondary pad on each side. i think the primary is the smaller of the two (less friction material). it also makes a difference whether the primary and secondary pads are switched front to back. it seems that i recall the primary pad goes to the rear of the vehicle and the secondary (more friction material) goes toward the front. don't quote me on this! i always have to look at a pic in the service manual to get it right. matt

You only mentioned loosening the brakes by turning the star wheel. Will opening the bleeder also free the brakes? If the star adjuster is expanding the brake shoes... ya got something assembled wrong. If it's in the hydraulics then it could be in the master cylinder... possibly, but doubtful, a bad residual valve. If you installed a new MC you need to check for clearance between the MC and the brake pedel activating rod. If there is no clearance, then the bleed orfice inside the MC may be closed and not allowing your brakes to completely disengage.

Thanks for the ideas guys. I went out to look at it this morning and the brakes werent' tight like they were last night when I went in. So I'm pretty sure that it is a problem with my master cylinder. It isn't new but I havent' ever used it before,replaced at the start of this build-up. So either I need to replace the MC or maybe I need to shim the MC away from the booster?:confused:

Are you running rear disk brakes? If yes, you have to check that your master cylinder is compatible. Master cylinders made for drum brakes have a residule check valve set for about 10 psi. This is to leave some tension to help overcome slack in the return springs. Without it your pedal would go soft. Disk brakes do not require this and the check valve ends up holding the brakes on.

Nope, they are drums and I"m thinking that it's the proportioning valve now. Gonna check it out today.