My 83 had a leaking wheel cylinder on the passenger rear wheel. No big deal right?? Unless of course you've not laid hands on a set of drum brakes in almost a decade like me and my brother who was helping me. We got the rear end up on jack stands and started in on the job. No sooner did I get the 2 springs off the top then the whole thing just kinda fell in my lap, before I got a real good mental picture to refer back to. No sooner did I start telling my brother to be careful of that on the other side and it happened to him too. It was aweful once we got both sides torn down all the way. We went through 2 cans of brake cleaner to get everything cleaned up. The car has sat mostly dormant for 3 years since I bought it and it was a NY car for almost 20 before that. Lots of rust and junk to clean up. We got the parts all cleaned up and rinsed and dried. Then we went to remove the wheel cylinders, might as well do both at the same time. As soon as he started turning the fitting on his side the entire line started moving. We both caught it and he stopped. The line was completely rusted to the fitting itself. The cylinder HAD to be changed and if the line is so old and weak that it'll snap with a little turning, who knows how long it'll last on the street. I made the decision to go ahead and I'd just replace the lines when I have more time. So now I've got to replace those too. We got the new wheel cylinders on and bolted up and found a Haynes manual with a pretty good brake job write up so we went by that. About the time we got both sides back together, dad got home. I was really relieved he was there to check out what we'd accomplished so far. he took a look at one side, then the other and back to the first side. It seems that whoever installed those pads originally wasn't paying very close attention. They had put both shoes with long lining on one side and both shoes with short lining on the other. I never would have caught it because we kept all the parts segregated by sides the entire time so we never compared them all to each other. We swapped a pad from each side to make things right and got it all put back together. 4.5 hours spent all total. Now I know why disc brake upgrades are so expensive. They're worth every freaking penny to never need to deal with drum brakes ever again.
Before this all happened we changed out the master cylinder too. Yet another job I've never done without dad around. I pulled the new one out, inspected it and made sure it was the right part, all good there. I clamped it down in dad's bench clamp and put on the bench bleed kit, something's not right here. I got shorted the bleed port adapter for the front reservoir. Finally found a whole bunch of old ones in dad's tool box, gotta love an old diesel mechanic for keeping odds n ends like that. I got one that worked and cleaned it up. I filled both reservoirs and started pushing the plunger. I learned a leson on that task. Never use something without a nice big handle or some sort of padding. I now have a pair of bruised heels on my hands thanks to my own ingenuity. Now seeing as how neither I or my brother had ever bench bled a master before we were going step by step per the directions that came with the cylinder. Or so we thought. I missed one very important part. Don't push in or release the plunger too fast. I kept creating more and more bubbles with each cycle. Thankfully once we finally got it bled the install went well. The old one took 10 minutes to take off and another 5 to get the new one on and torqued into place.
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Sometimes I think that government fits that old-fashioned definition of a baby: An alimentary canal with an appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
- Ronald Reagan
I feel your pain. I just finished up changing out both rear brake cylinders on the GT. The pass. side exploded and I went through a whole can of brake cleaner on that side alone. The fun part was putting everything on again. I had a reference but it still sucked. I had the bottom spring pop off and recoil back into my thumb. I had a top spring slip off and slap the top of my finger. Both those felt great. I definetely agree that rear disc brakes are worth every penny. I have had to do the bench bleed before when I did the SVO upgrade on my brakes. NO FUN.
I think I am ready to hit the road again, now I get to find out if the brakes are adjusted right or if they are too tight. Fun stuff.
Drew
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If I take cars and hot girls with money and add them to my life, I have found the key to happiness!
87 GT (UNDER CONSTRUCTION) new paint job, 306 w/ TFS stage 1 cam, TFS intake , still cant decide on heads.
Drew, I adjusted mine in small increments until I couldn't fit the drum on and then backed them off a half turn. You can adjust them to the 'just right' position by backing up and using the brakes moderately repeatedly. That will cause the adjuster pawl to work the adjuster head around.
__________________
Sometimes I think that government fits that old-fashioned definition of a baby: An alimentary canal with an appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
- Ronald Reagan
Told y'all b4,I've dealt w/classics for years-I've got a permanant "knot"on the tip of my left index finger from trying to use a hammer to coax a drum off a '65 and getting in to big a hurry and pinched it -baaaaad! The good thing about drums is you can adjust them,my 94 and 95 both the pedal seems to go too far down b4 braking starts to happen for my taste and I don't know what to do about it
If the pedal is soft, try bleeding the lines. If they haven't been bled in a long time there's the possibility of air and/or water being in them.
__________________
Sometimes I think that government fits that old-fashioned definition of a baby: An alimentary canal with an appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
- Ronald Reagan
1965 Mustang Coupe Project: 1965 Mustang Inline 6 (For Now) Coupe, New Floors, New Quarters | Ford 9 Inch Rear, 11" Rear Disc Brakes, 3.50:1 Gears | Control Freak Front U/L Control Arms, Global West Adj. Strut Rods | KYB Gas-A-Justs, Grab-A-Trak 620 Coils & Mid-Eye 5-Leafs | Global West Tubular Subframe Connectors | Addco 1-1/8 Front Swaybar Kit
That was the last time I take that particular set of brakes apart. If anything else breaks on that end, I'm doing the 5 lug conversion and disc brake conversion on the rear end instead of fixing the OE drums again.
__________________
Sometimes I think that government fits that old-fashioned definition of a baby: An alimentary canal with an appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
- Ronald Reagan
I am now definetely collecting my stuff for rear wheel disc and since I am at it I might as well go for the cobra conversion on all four corners.
I replaced all the springs and hardware ts time around so nothing should brake due to old age etc. Next time i am back there I want it to be for the disc beake swap.
Drew
__________________
If I take cars and hot girls with money and add them to my life, I have found the key to happiness!
87 GT (UNDER CONSTRUCTION) new paint job, 306 w/ TFS stage 1 cam, TFS intake , still cant decide on heads.
[quote=BlueStreak03]If the pedal is soft, try bleeding the lines. If they haven't been bled in a long time there's the possibility of air and/or water being in them.[/quote
The pedal is like-not there-about 1/4-1/3 the way down,when it hits,it hits good though.The '94 hasn't been touched-I know,I bought it new-but I have bled the '95 more than once and even put a new mc on it.This seems to happen on all 4 wheel disc cars I've ever had.. I'm not sure what might work,or if it's even an option on the Fox cars,but on the classics you can swap drum units from a larger vehicle to get the bigger/better brakes on them,like a Galaxie or a pickup... something to consider. It's like anything else-the first time is the worst,after that you've been through it and know how NOT to do it
I hate working on brakes! 
