No back Brakes!

[iriegnome]

My car was going along just nicely when the pedal went to the floor and the brake light came on. Well, pulled all the wheels off, could not find any leaks. Uncapped the Master cylinder and it was empty, so I put fluid on it. Bled the brakes and the pedal came back, however.... As I was checking the brakes before I put the wheels on, I realized that I only had the front brakes working. The rear brakes weren't doing anything at all. I pulled the hubs off and found that the wheel cylinders were frozen and completely not working. Replaced them with new ones. Got the whole system back together and bled the brakes again. No rear brakes still. Now, I am looking at the e-brake adjusters. They are pretty locked up in place. Since there are no brake adjustment holes, the only thing I can think of is that the back brakes are not working because those parking brake levers work as the self adjusters and because they are frozen, that would be why I have no back brakes..
Any input?? Help...

[Spike]

I had that happen on my '90 probably a year ago. I took both adjusters off and cleaned the heck out of them. Scrubbed all the rust off, and got grease in every crevice I could find. Worked okay for 6 or so months.

Brakes seem to be a thing today. Mine just went out on the '89 last night..

[drddan]

Pull the drums off, re-adjust shoes until the drum barely goes back on...you should have back brakes with or without the adjusters working..but while you have the drums off..do as mentioned above by Spike!
Clean the heck out of 'em, prolly have to beat them with a hammer some to loosen up the adjusters (spreading the rivets that hold them all together a little)
grease the heck out of 'em ...re-install

if that dont work you have a problem with the rear brake lines

My adjusters were locked up tight! Back brakes still worked fine!
I did the adjusters clean, beat, grease and I now have a great e- brake! (I beat them 'til they were loose as a goose!)

EDIT: Hmmm...could be the master cylinder or proportioning valve is bad too.

[bravekozak]

Sometimes it may just be easier to upgrade to Aspire brakes and just get rid of the rusty old Festiva brakes. You will also need some wheels and tires from the junkyard. I paid $120 for mine.

[iriegnome]

I am going to do the adjuster arms in the morning. Also, my e-brake works fine, cables moving and such, except the clevis pins were not hooked to the brake adjusters, so after I fix the adjusters, I should have an e-brake. Can someone tell me what a portioning valve is? I bought the car just after it had new rear brake lines installed.

[bravekozak]

The proportioning valve is located on the firewall of the engine compartment. Six brake lines are attached to it.

[iriegnome]

that doesnt sound good if that is bad.. Where would i pick up one of those?

[bravekozak]

Junk yard. But I would test everything else first.

[iriegnome]

Could the Master Cylinder be my culprit? I lost all the fluid from the cylinder, but could not find any place where it leaked out? Not on the front or back. The MC isn't wet under it either...

[Chobobulous]

Did it leak down into the brake booster?

[iriegnome]

No. The booster and firewall were dry

[Pu241]

No. The booster and firewall were dry

If it leaks into the booster, it can then be pulled to the engine and burned.
And you never see fluid anywhere.
Betting on master cylinder.
But diagnose before you replace perfectly good parts for no reason.

[iriegnome]

My father-in-law explained how the booster could push the brake fluid into the engine and it would be burned off, so that has come up.
I replaced the wheel cylinders today and tomorrow I will be doing the e-brake adjuster/arm things tomorrow and if I still don't have back brakes, tehn
I guess I move to the master cylinder and/or booster

[WmWatt]

One thing the proportioing valve does is to "turn off" one front and one rear brake when there is a leak in the brake line so you still have one front and one rear brake for safety. Since both fronts are working and both backs are failing I'd tend to look elsewhere for the problem. I don't know the details of how the master cyclinder works but there's sure to be diagrams and explinations on the Internet which would indicate if it could be the cause of the problem. The missing brake fluid had to go somewhere. I'd try to trace that down. Perhaps pull the hose off the booster and see if it's wet inside?

[iriegnome]

I will check the inside of the booster today as well.