Here's a questions for you...

I'm changing my brakes and just finished the rear shoes/drums today. I'm planning to tackle the front discs tomorrow after I pick up a breaker bar and some more PB blaster for the carrier bolts. Anyways, after I changed the back shoes and drums, I still have a lot of give on the brake pedal before the car starts stopping. I have very little clearance before I hit the bottom of the stroke.

I haven't bled the system yet and the reservoir is full. I don't have a leak (at least as far as I can tell). Also, the shoes are right up against the drum with very little clearance.

I'm wondering if the problem should correct itself after I've changed the front discs? Also, when I had the drums off, I noticed that when I checked the dust boot on the drum cylinder, there was a slight bit of oil. It doesn't leak with the boot on, but it feels like the piston could pop right out if I took it apart. Is this normal?

Any insight would be really appreciated.

Thanks,
Alex

Aww... no replies... that makes me sad. :crying:

Anyways, turns out that I just needed to bleed the system. Brakes are nice and taught now that there's no more air in the brake lines.

The whole job took the better part of two days, but it was worth it. Cost me half as much as having a garage doing it, and I was able to afford nicer parts.