brakes locking up

Forum: 

hi all i'm not going mad but heres my prob, on the 1st initial drive of my 1994 independant f78 the rear brakes lock up if your not gentle only on the 1st brake then ok after that, it only lies through the night then same in the morning.
if a braking prob why not all the time at first i thought of handbrake sticking but seems ok,i know it sounds silly but could it be anything to do with the oil being cold or am i barking up the wrong tree, i havnt changed the oil in braking system for over a year.ive used the search on this site but didnt see anything any coment would be a help and time saving before i start pulling my hair out.
cheers bill

Sounds to me like the brake p

Sounds to me like the brake proportioning valve (sometimes called brake pressure regulator) is faulty. This thingumyjig controls the relative braking force between the front and rear brakes.
This could be dangerous in an emergency braking situation, take it to a garage and have it checked asap.

Stone.

Drum check.

I suggest you remove the rear brake drums and look inside. Problem could be a broken return spring or other obstruction. If that fails to locate the problem bleed all the brakes in the correct sequence. Then suspect the proportion valve.

Brakes grabbing

Hi Bill

Have a look inside your rear brakes, give everything a good clean with a brush to remove the dust, then using some 120 grit emery paper give the linings a rub to remove any "glazing" or imbedded dust from the surface. Make sure the hand brake lever on the brake shoes are pulling on and returning fully when you operate the hand brake in the car, you don't want any tension on the cables with the lever released. When you refit the drums, give the pedal a couple of pumps (make sure you have both drums fitted or you'll pop your pistons( which is as painful as it sounds)). Then you should be able to manually adjust the brakes with a flat screw driver through a slot in the back plate, turning the drums as you tighten the adjuster, when you feel the brakes binding on the drums give the pedal another couple of pumps to align the shoes to the drum & try adjusting them up some more. Once you have them both adjusted check your hand brake lever travel and adjust the cables if required.

hope this helps, Daz

Auto adjustors.

I believe the rear brakes are self adjusting. No manual adjustment provided.
NB ... fully slacken the handbrake cable before trying to remove the brake drums.
When refitting the drums set the auto adjusters to minimal. Fix the drums. Adjust the handbrake cable. Pull up/down/up/down the handbrake to take up any slack in the brake drums - until the shoes contact the drums.

Auto adjusters

Hi, yes they are auto adjusters, but (on the early pre-Indepentent Fourtrak) they are a screw type adjuster and although they don't need adjusting manually, i find it's better to get the shoes adjusted to the drums before doiong the hand brake cables. I always adjust them manually before an MOT as well. If the Indepentent has a ratchett type adjuster that adjusts the brakes fully with one or two operations of the hand brake then they don't need doing manually.

brakes locking up

I am not sure on this but would be worth looking to see if you have brake compensator Unknw
Just make sure the link has not popped off or if it is sticking it is a part on the brakes that none ever looks at till it goes wrong.

IOW