I have a 2000 Ram 1500 4X4 (125,000 mi). I do all my own maintenance on my vehicles, and I am stumpped on this one. The rear brakes are doing the majority of the braking. On gravel the rear tires will skid when the brakes are applied. The rear pads are new, clean and dry (free of oil). The rear drums do not seem to be warped. The rear wheel cylinders have been replaced over the past year. This weekend I installed a new rear brake hose and bleed rear brakes. The front has new rotors and pads. The caliper sliders are greased and have free travel. The metering valve plunger does extend when brake is applied and returns when released. The rotors are hot/warm to touch after a trip, so I am assuming the front brakes are working. Please Help!
Steve

 

I believe that you are experiencing what the engineers were concerned with when they designed ABS. That it would not work well on ... um ... semi-packed surfaces like snow, dirt or gravel. They determined that it is BETTER to lock the wheels up on these surfaces because you actually build up a wedge between the tire and the driving plane that helps stop the vehicle ... like chocks. In testing on snow (or gravel) vehicles WITH ABS had longer stopping distances than those without it. Undoubtedly, both distances were pretty **** poor.

Now ... back to your truck ... rest assured, the rear brakes are NOT doing the majority of the braking. Try what you spelled out on dry pavement. If you're not flat-spotting your two rear tires and you're still stopping in a reasonable distance ... your front brakes are working fine. What you're seeing is the huge weight transfer that occurs when you step on the brake pedal. All (well, a LOT) of the weight goes to the front of the truck and as such, the front tires are prevented from locking, even though they are doing much more braking than the rears. I would be more concerned as to why the rears are locking up at ALL ... gravel or no. You're supposed to have an RWAL circuit ... at the minimum. Are you doing this "gravel running" in 4-Hi?

 

Cant help ya, but it happens to my truck once in a while. Especially when my truck starts in the morning. When i get to the top of my drivewayand stop to look for traffic my rears lock up and slide. I thought something was wrong so i took it all apart and found nothing. It went away on its own after a while.

 

Mine do the same thing on my 95 2500.Only on my first stop and mostly when it is humid out.

 

I wish my rams rear brakes worked that good....J/K....make sure you haven't adjusted them too tightly...They should just barely touch when freespinning. A lot of guys run the shoes up till they drag...tends to make things pretty touchy. See if that helps.

 

And...the rear brakes need to be adjusted evenly or a similar situation will occur like the one you are having!!! I would say back the rear brakes off until they are just slighty dragging when sliding the drums on (or even slightly less than that!


Kyle

 

Have you burnished in the brakes? If not, go around 40 mph and hit the brakes hard to a complete stop. drive until they have cooled down and repeat about 20x, then see if they lock up.

 

Mine does the exact same thing at the first stop I make in the morning......seems it take a stop for the ABS to set or kick in.
After the first stop I am "golden".........I have owned 3 dodges and if they had ABS they all did it I think.

 

Try pulling the fuse and relay for the ABS, if the problem goes away it is ABS related.

 

Gut the rear drums, convert to disk, and add a hydroboost assist unit.


Loose all the antilock crap too.