soft brakes

[steve s]

after our play at woodlands last sunday my brakes have been very soft .if i give them just one pump they feel like normal what do you think could be the problem.my brakes were very good until woodlands

[charvell]

after our play at woodlands last sunday my brakes have been very soft .if i give them just one pump they feel like normal what do you think could be the problem.my brakes were very good until woodlands

you could have crud in the rears, worth taking the drums off and looking/cleaning. Give the fronts a good clean as well hen see what happens, this is the cheapist starting point

[nero279]

aye it's almost certainly shite in the rear drums

[steve s]

thanks colin ian will look over the weekend

[Jonny77]

Yep definately the rears are full of crap and the adjusters need to be worked.
Sometimes you can get away with simply pulling the handbrake loads of times until they come back, but othertimes you need to take the drums off and clean the crap out.
I will be doing mine too this weekend, Woodlands mud finally killed my rears completely so I have a new set of shoes to fit.

[plumb bob]

What's the deal with drum brakes?
Discs all round is far superior, and probably cheaper to produce, so why do manufacturers waste their time with drum brakes??

[Predictable Bob]

That may be true now but it probably wasn't when they designed the Surf .....

When I find my lorryload of fivers I'm going to get Colorado discs fitted to the rear - it probably won't affect the braking much but at least I won't worry about changing the discs and pads myself !

PS
I'm not a trained mechananic either