96 Dodge ram brakes

Coming home today with my tractor, and mower on my trailer. Being pulled by my 96 Dodge 3500. I tried to stop. The front wheels locked up. Lots of smoke, so I know they were locked up. The rears didn't seam to be doing much. I did noticed the brake light on. Trailer brake control may need some fine tuning, but that didn't have any thing to do with my truck brakes. Any thoughts? Stan

If the brakes on BOTH front wheels won't release the typical cause would be a failed master cylinder.

Well if the brake warning lite came on and you smoked the ft. tires i would say your rear brakes are not working due to a blowen line or wheel cylinder . A couple years back i replaced ever brake line on my 95 3500 . Now i do not know if you have Vac booster or the hydravac system , not sure when they changed as the Vac system is junk trust me . The brakes on my 95 are the same as the put on a 95 FORD F 250 and they are not enough for a one ton Rotors are to small and the rear drum brakes don't do much and the proportioning valve is not wright .

Bob The brakes released ok. It is when I tried to stop, only the front brakes seamed to work. Stan

Sounds like a combination of failed rear brakes and not enough trailer brakes. The fronts were carrying all the load.

Rear and trailer brakes not adjusted up or hydraulic problem or all of the above.

(quoted from post at 22:42:17 12/30/15) Sounds like a combination of failed rear brakes and not enough trailer brakes. The fronts were carrying all the load.

Click to expand...

ounds right and also sounds like a recipe for a jack knife. Be safe.

Does your truck have that stupid anti lock brakes that shut off the rear wheels ? My 1996 ram 2500 did. I finally disabled it after a couple of close calls !

The anti lock system has failed(common problem on 90's Dodges)Also your trailer brakes need adjusted/checked. Trailer brakes should stop the truck with a reasonable load on the trailer.

I also believe the anti-lock (ANTI-STOP) system acting like they are designed to do. They are a danger to everybody on the road and should not be allowed instead of being required. And in my job I had my arm about broken a few times because of them. Could not disable them and still have brake lights.

I unpluged the anti lock brake control module under the dash on the 1996. Only way I could get the dash light to go out.

Check the rear brake adjustment. Very common to have rear brakes out of adjustment requiring the front brakes to do more work. Trailer brakes may be out of adjustment too.

Well THAT is not totally true , As this i was informed by the head service manager for Dexter Axles at the main plant years back when i had a trailer brake failure . I stopped by there main plant just to see if i could BUY all new brake parts so i had everything to rebuild the brakes on my trailer . I did not know that i would cause such a commotion just by stopping by The next thing i knew there were peopel coming out it to the waiting room and asking all kinds of questions about my problem . Then the head service manager came in and had me take my truck and trailer LOADED with two high dollar John Deere tractors and one Massey 95 to the service dept. and back it in a service bay . In a matter of min. the trailer was up off the ground load and all and all four wheels were off all four backing plates with everything attached to them were layen on the floor and new backing plated with all pieces and part going back on with new wiring . All i could think about was THIS IS GOING TO HURT my check book . RON the service manager and i were talking and he informed me that the electric trailer brake is NOT designed to STOP you , it is Designed to SLOW you down and it is the truck brakes that are designed to STOP you . IF YOU WANT A TRAILER BRAKE THAT WILL STOP YOU then you either NEED a VAC. over Hyd. Electric over Hyd or you need AN AIR BRAKE So my friend you are like most people and think that well my truck will PULL Anything i can load on that trailer , well yes it may pull anything you load on that trailer it AIN'T AH GOING TO STOP IT . And again MOST people that have a trailer how many of you inspect it regularly check your brakes and adjust your brakes MANUALY then do a WALK AROUND once hooked up check tires for ware and air pressure check all lightrs and your tie down points for cracks along with frame cross members and supencion ? But anyway I lucked out as my trailer had been over looked on a recall for a brake update and my bill when done was a hand shake and a thank you . But Ron the service manger opened my eyes on electric trailer brakes . I also had a ongoing problem with my 88 Ford F350 with brakes when the outside temp.s got above 80 degrees and on a long steady pull where you were working it , yes i was able to hold any highway speed but you were working the engine . exhaust temps were high and the left exhaust pipe ran real close to the anti loc brake control valve and it would cause the brake fluid to boil and force brake fluid back up to the master cylinder and even cause it to over flow , So when you went to stop and pressed down on the brake pedal it went to the floor all the way and you had NO BRAKES on the truck at all. Plus with the way the new brake controllers work unless it sences the truck nose dive just even a little it does NOT actavate the trailer brake controller , now IF you are fast enough thinker and fast reaction time and applied the traler brake controller manualy you were NOT slowing down . You notice i said SLOWING DOWN . About the same thing applys to big trucks with air brakes if the tractor or trailer are not adjusted up correctly and one is or the other is out of adjustment guess what YOU AE NOT GOING TO STOP . Even back in my old caol hauling days we knew we needed good brakes to stop the loads and we went to great lenghts to do so . Yes we hauled extremlly heavy and a lot of us had what they called Mountain brakes on our outfits . These brakes where way larger then the standard brake . Our how outfit was designed and built for the job we were doing . 90-95 % of you guys do not design and have your trucks built for the job you plan to do with them , you run out to the dealer and BUY what is on the lot with out reguard to how the truck is equiped . Ok so it has a trailer TOW pklg. on it . There idea of a trailer TOW is not your idea of trailer TOW . There's is the weekend camper or the weekend boater . yes some of the shell we say Campers will darn near max out the truck . And we are over maxing the truck. Like my 88 Ford as it sat empty with full tanks it weighed in at 7500 lbs , then drop the goose neck down on it and pull the WHOLE truck and trailer on the scales with all the chains and binder my two leveling bridges and a spare tire and the combined truck and trailer weighted in at 15000 on the nose . Now at the time according to FORD my truck was capible of 18500 GCVW , BUT you looked at the sticker on the door piller and it said 11500 , then you looked at the sticker on the neck of the trailer and it read 18500 . So by that i am good to go ------ NOT , but we all do this . Yes the truck can handle a load of 11500 LBs total , yes the trailer can handle 18500Lbs , so that comes up to 30000 wright when in reality i have exceded what the truck really can handle . Same applys to the War Dept.'s Durango they say it can handle 7500 lbs TOW , that is total Durango and what you have behind it . I hope this helps . Oh and i learned way back i 78 DO NOT truct anitloc brakes . I had a brand new semi tractor and a brand new dump trailer that DID NOT STOP in a panic stop situation no matter what i did tryen to stop , computer said wheels were locking up and released all brake air pressure to the brakes and i relocated the rear bumper on a Cheve impala to the back window . I had BOTH FEET on the double wide brake pedal i bent the handle on the trailer brake and broke both knobs off the parking brake and trailer brake vakves and the truck said NOPE I AIN'T STOPPEN just yet. Had it been the old truck there would have been 22 skid marks on the road and there would have been 22 tires with flat spost on them . Now had the state cop not just come from his third accident for the day involving a new semi with anit loc brakes i may have been in deep dodo and the fact that eight people all said they heard the air being released while the brake lights were still on . Need less to say i violated Fed. reg.s by removing all the anti loc control valves on the tractor and trailer and replaced them with the older style reg brake valves . Then the truck would stop when needed Those mountain brakes were massive and you had to be vary light on the pedal when empty .

If his rear brakes were out of adjustment then he may have blowen a wheel cylinder as my buddy did on his 2001 3500 Goat . I may do all of his tractor work but i plum hate working on cars and trucks . Bad enough when i have to do my own or my girls cars. It is Don't call me don't talk to me and do not come around me when i am doing this , just go away and don't come back for a couple days. Well eugene will take his cars and trucks to any Billy Bob or Jimmy Joe who thinks he is a mechanic . Then whe something goes wrong he keep asking me what is wrong . I keep telling him i did not work on it and take it back . Well he has had rear brake problems since the last idiot worked on them . He would not let up on me about looking at them . Told him OK i'll look at them BUT YOU ARE GOING TO WORK ON THEM i am not getting my hand dirty and i AM NOT layen on the ground to do this.------- So in his drive on the gravel HE gets into them as i set on a five gallon bucket . I am doing what i told him i would do and that is LOOK at them . Yep the pass anger side wheel cylinder is blowen out due to out of adjustment brakes . So ned wheel cylinder , new brake shoes as they are plum tore up , need hard ware kit as everything is tore up . Next before we go to the parts store we check the drivers side and OH it is a hick up and a sneeze away from doing the same thing . WHY , well if you get into these brakes and replace the hard ware with a new KIT one had best first understand how things work and how the self adjusters work and if everything is still in place when you take it apart and you are a NOVICE at this TAKE PICTURES BEFORE YOU TAKE THINGS APART . Because Jimmy JOe and Billy Bob must not have done this as they had the self adjuster levers on the wrong side and (1) that left the adjusters to back off on the one side and (2) the other side would now back it's self off . Well Eugene learned how to do a brake job correctly , learned how to make up and properly bend brake lines to fit like OEM and how to Bleed brakes . His schooling lesson only took 6 and a half hours , i really need to find a cushion that is soft and fits the bottom of a five gallon bucket , my rear end got a little sore but i did not get my hands or clothes dirty .
Now his brakes work.

Had same problem with my '98 Dodge and my '97 Chev, - 'auto' adjusters on drum brakes - DON'T auto adjust after the first couple of years. Rear brakes become near useless with out an occasional adjustment. Not just a brand of truck problem, my neighbor has a couple older Fords - same thing. I've had another rear brake problem, first thing I noticed was a pull to the right during hard braking. I was getting a tiny bit of oil on the L/R brake shoes. Not enough to show up on the outside, but enough to reduce the braking considerably. Have had this happen before but the leak was bad enough to see when I looked under the rear of the truck. Not going to say it isn't the anti locks, but I would inspect / adjust the rear brakes first. I have anti lock problems on my '97 Chev. 2500, it is dangerous the way it is. I no longer use it on the road, it's just a ranch 'beater' these days, but I've got to find a cure without spending a fortune. The 'ol' wreck' isn't worth much but it's nice to have around.

Speaking from experience-I believe several factors contributed to this 'event'.1-if this is a bumper pull trailer,heavy load on the tongue,lightened the front tires and they lost traction.2-rear brakes not functioning properly(if they are drum)out of adjustment or frozen wheel cylinders.The adjustment could be due to non functioning self adjusters possibly due to rust.The wheel cylinders could be frozen due light stopping power used by the owner who anticipates his stops;since the fronts do 70% of the stopping,the rears may barely be required to make most stops.Also the proportioning valve may not be functioning properly.If they are disc rears,still could be possible frozen calipers due the same reasons.
I recently had a rear brake line failure on my '03 Chevy while towing a loaded trailer.The pedal dropped,the fronts skidded,the rears kept rolling,and then the antilock kicked on,dropped the pedal to the floor,and,because the brake line failed,the antilock could not pump up the rears,so I had to pump the pedal my self.However what saved me mostly was that my trailer brakes did work and help stop me.Now 2 things-I have had anti lock stops on slick,icy conditions and they do a great job.I have road tested vehicles for ABS(antilock)proper function, and when they work,nothing is better.But when they don't , they are a mess.On my stop- because of the line failure(rust),the ABS could not function properly costing me valuable stopping distance.On many vehicles they also act as the proportioning valve in regular stops,and can fail causing poor braking.Manufacturers should not make the lines out of anything that will rust;it can be done:the after market ones I had put on my truck are stainless steel.The place I had do the job does quite a few and he also has told me he finds a lot of frozen rear wheel cylinders after a poor braking complaint.
Every vehicle that I own or drive a lot,once in a while I try out the ABS to see if it skids or antilocks.I usually try this out on slick conditions so I know how my brakes will react in an emergency.I also check my trailer brakes before each haul,to see if they will lock up on my drive way with the hand control.I am a skeptic:40 yrs of being a mechanic I guess.Mark