I recently bought a 1995 Mazda B2300. I was aware of some of the issues that it had, but I didn’t know the full extent. My current problem is when I press the brake pedal, the car comes to a complete stop as if I had slammed the pedal as far as it would go. To be clear, according to the previous owner the E-brake wouldn’t disengage if it was used, so the line was apparently cut. I was just hoping anybody would have an idea as to what the problem was. I’m planning to schedule at the local mechanic since I can’t figure it out.
The Emergency brake on this is a regular cable operated lever that expands the rear brake shoes. It should have nothing to do with your hydraulic braking system unless what remains of it is jamming your rear brakes.If that is the case, remove the remnants of the cables or replace the cables so your e-brake works. If is your hydraulic brakes that are continuing to have pressure after you release the pedal, it is either crud in the return ports of the master cylinder or a wrong length rod going through the firewall to the m/cor a co;;a[sing flexible brake hose. If it is one wheel locking it is the hose. If it is two or four it is the m/c.
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My first thought is the master cylinder is holding pressure on the brakes. If you want to test this theory, jack up the truck so that the front wheels are off of the ground and try to spin the wheels by hand. If both front wheels are very difficult to spin, I’d suspect the master cylinder needs replacing (as oldtimer said).
If the front wheels spin relatively easy by hand, jack up the rear, put the truck in neutral, and try to spin the rear wheels by hand. It’s possible that the cable to the parking brake was cut after the parking brake was set and the rear brakes are dragging (since we already know it had a habit of sticking in the past).
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Trucks often have a brake pressure proportioning valve that adjusts how hard the rear wheels brake based on how much weight you have in the bed. If that valve sticks, it can apply too much braking force with an empty bed, and that makes the rear wheels lock.