Brakes Clicking noise while braking?

TIGGER

Founding Member
Mar 6, 2000
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Portland, OR
I am getting an annoying clicking noise when braking from the front on my 89. This just started at the tail end of last week and has gone from only clicking sometimes to clicking all the time. The harder I brake the louder the clicking gets. There are no shakes, shimmy's or vibrations in the steering wheel, brakes, or brake pedal when braking and clicking is occurring. The car stops as normal and does not pull to either side. Basically the car runs, drives and stops normal other than the clicking.

It sounds like the clicking is coming from the drivers front of the car. Yesterday, I pulled all the wheels off and gave a good look to everything but I did not find anything. Rear brakes are new with maybe 700 miles on them. They looked good, nothing loose or missing. Front brake pads are ~60% or so and worn fairly even. Rotors are shot. There are good sized grooves in both. Wheel bearings are tight. I loosened the calipers, cleaned the pins and re-bent the clips on the inner pad that go into the caliper piston because they felt a little loose. Clicking noise is still present.

Not sure where to go from here. Has anyone had a similar issue? If so what was the cause? I think I am going to pull the drivers wheel off again when I get home and see I can see something rubbing somewhere. Maybe it is occurring when the car nose dives during braking? IDK.....
 
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Does the clicking sound like it’s directly tied to wheel rotation? One click per revolution?

When was the last time you did bearings on that wheel? If you have grease handy, might be worth pulling the hub apart and repacking the bearings with grease and reassembling it.
 
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Yes, tied to wheel rotation and speed. Never done front bearings on this car yet and not sure when my buddy I got the car from did it last. Probably has been a while from looking at the condition of the rotors. When I got the car the front bearings were loose so I just tightened them. I didn't pack them. Thanks, I will take a look at it when I get home.
 
Stopped by my car buddy neighbor on my way home from work tonight to get his opinion. He is fairly confident that the noise is coming from the left rear and not the front. Not sure if I will work on the car tonight like I had hoped. Got home late…..
 
No not a rock as there is only makes noise when the brake pedal is depressed.

I Jacked up the rear and put the car on jack stands and "drove it" and the sound is definitely coming from the drivers rear. I did not have time to tear it apart that night but I did yesterday.

So a little back story, I just did the rear brakes a month ago because the drivers side wheel cylinder let go. Car has new wheel cylinders and shoes on both sides with maybe 1000 miles on them.

As near as I can tell the sound is coming from the front shoe. I think it coming away from the top pin and then snapping back. I can get the front shoe to pop in and out by shifting the whole assembly front to back around the backing plate. I took it all apart and I didnt see any thing wrong with my installation. Backing plate does not seem loose. I did change the top springs with other used ones and it still seems to do it. Not sure where to do from here.... The only thing I do know is wrong is that there are grooves in the backing plates but the shoes seem to pivot just fine and the grooves are at the bottom tabs of the backing plate
 
Picture of the driver side and the shoe with the shorter pad is in the front as it should be on both sides.

Fox_Mustang_8.8_Drum_Brake_Driver_Side.jpg


Figured a picture would help?
 
Picture of the driver side and the shoe with the shorter pad is in the front as it should be on both sides.

Fox_Mustang_8.8_Drum_Brake_Driver_Side.jpg


Figured a picture would help?
Nah, I trust you...... I always say do one side at a time ( with drum brakes) so you know how to put them back together... You can install the wrong shoe forward doing it that way........
 
Small shoe is front. And I do typically do one side at a time. It is still clicking and kinda getting louder. Tonight on my way home it dawned on me that I did not check if the wheel cylinder is tight. After I got home I jacked up the rear and checked. They were tight so I can check that off the list. I think this weekend I am going to jack the rear up and invite my car buddy over and have him “drive” the car on the jackstands while I observe.
 
Small shoe is front. And I do typically do one side at a time. It is still clicking and kinda getting louder. Tonight on my way home it dawned on me that I did not check if the wheel cylinder is tight. After I got home I jacked up the rear and checked. They were tight so I can check that off the list. I think this weekend I am going to jack the rear up and invite my car buddy over and have him “drive” the car on the jackstands while I observe.
No loose clothing or long hair when you do this....
 
Pull the wheels off and use a couple lug nuts to secure the drums. Doubt it’s coming from the wheels so this will help.

And to be clear this is only happening when you apply the brakes, correct?
 
Sorry for the late response. Was a busy week last week at work. Yes the sound is only happening when the brakes are applied and it gets louder the harder you press on the pedal.

My buddy did come by. Wheel cylinder was tight. Definitely the driver side and definitely coming from inside the drum. We pulled the wheel and drum off. I pressed the pedal slowly and only the front shoe was moving. Rear shoe did not move no matter what we did. I went and got a wheel cylinder at Napa and put it on. My buddy had to go before I was done so I could not check if both shoes were moving. I threw the wheel on and did 2-3 pulls on the jack stands and there was no noise. Great! put all my stuff away and put the car back on the ground. Went to go get pizza a couple hours later and the first stop from a decent amount of speed, click click click.....

It gets better. When I get home the heater core decides to puke its guts out down my driveway. I am working on that now. I will get back to this issue once I get the heater core replaced.
 
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Can you post a picture of the suspect rear brake assembly? Would like to see how you have the springs arranged and what the lower tabs on the backing plate that the shoes ride on look like.
 
Back at this again because the clicking is driving me crazy. Pulled the wheel and drum off. I don’t see anything??? Took it all apart again as well. Still no smoking gun. Backing plate is worn up top but not super bad in my opinion. I’ve seen worse. Here is what everything looks like.
 

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I picked up a new motorcraft spring kit from rock auto on one of my recent orders. I don’t think the springs are the problem as I already swapped some of them with some used ones I had in my pinto bolt bucket. It didn’t make a difference.

Not sure where to go from here:shrug:
 
Third picture. Can you get a better picture of the ebrake auto adjuster, auto adjuster spring, and auto adjuster plate. Reason I ask is that plate looks bent / wrapped around the end of the auto adjuster in that picture.