Hey everyone, im in some dire straits here and need some help. I used to post with rksport back in the day when i had my 97 z24, so im not new per say, but its been awhile since i dug into a j body. But heres the dilemma. my girlfriend had a 97 4 dr LS, and its acting up something fierce. during light to normal braking, the rear end likes to grab really hard, drops the whole rear end down a couple inches in the process, and kicks on the abs. Its crazy, for instance, this happened as we were pulling up to the drive thru window at taco bell. seriously, like 3 mph , and the whole rear end just squats down, no abs on that one, but nonetheless. I spent a couple years in the army, and im a diesel repair tech, with certifications in hydraulic, air, and air over hydraulic brakes. The car was in a week prior to this for a routine cleaning and adjusting of the brakes,and everything was found nominal. so we took it back in and the only thing i could think of was the proportioning valve, and maybe the booster or cylinder. well the guy feeds me this line about how in 97 chevy introduced the "dynamic proportioning system" to combat quick consumption of the front pads. and im going, great, thats all well and good, but i had a 97 z and i never ever had this problem. Well he then asked me if my z had disc brakes in the rear (ummmm no.) so he lost credibility with that, and then he told me everything was fine. clearly this is not normal, and not safe, with winter coming up i want her brakes to be 100% and i really dont know where else to look, im off to get a chiltons today, and ill probably be tearing apart the rear this weekend, but if anybody had any ideas it would be much appreciated. Thank you so much, sorry about the long post.

check the ABS sensors. Something might be causing them to send a signal that the rears are locking up.

OR more likely, whomever adjusted the rear for you didnt leave enough slack. Then when you step on the brake it puts the car out of balance. (ie the rears lock up prior to the fronts.) This can cause worse issues in the winter when you tend to fish tale more anyways.

Look up some posts by a guy named StopitPerformance I think he is called. He talks about the weight transfer issue sometimes and the need to have properly proportioned stopping (ie front to rear dist)

Hope this helps.

This problem had an unexpected(By me anyway) solution:-

[Guess what ? after months of thinking about it and trying things the problem is ....


cheap aftermarket pads, got new GM pads and cars brakes fine... thanx]

This is the link:-

http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=3&i=93436&t=93436

It may help


Alont

If they just adjusted the brakes.......... why?
J-bodies have self adjusting rear brakes. There is a little sprocket that clicks a tooth over when it needs to. Take the drums off again and tighten that little sprocket assembly until it is as short as possible without being tightened so that you can't move it by hand. Then put everything back together. You should have very little brake pedal pressure. Put the car in reverse and use the brakes to readjust them. Pedal pressure should come back and all should be good. If it is not that, then check the shoes to see if there is any brake fluid on them. If there is, replace them. You may also want to replace the wheel cylinders as that may be the cause of the saturation and they are inexpensive.



Cardomain|Myspace

Common j-body problem. The drums have a tendancy to glaze up and when they do they stick like crazy. It happens all the time with the cars. Nothing to do with ABS or adjusters. If you dont want to spend any money remove the drums and spray them with brake cleaner and sand them down a little to remove the glazing. If you dont mind spending a little then buy new drums and shoes. They dont have to be GM ones-you can skimp out and go with the cheap ones. It really doesnt matter, no matter what anyone else says.


Boosted 97 2.2L 5 Speed
Boosted 3.4L soon to come

First of all I would take a close look at the rear brakes are not adjusted properly and You may need to replace those old springs that allow the brake shoes to work properly.

Usuallt that will correct it, If not I would inspect youre wheel cyl's, they could be wornout.

Good Luck

hey thanks alot guys, like i said, ive been out of the j-body quite awhile, so i appreciate your input. It's nice to know that this isnt an isolated issue and im not on an island here! I'm gonna try to do everything you guys mentioned, one at a time, and see what happens, thanks again everyone.