REAR AXLE BRAKE QUESTION!!!!!

today i realized i have that thing on my rear axle that is supposed to "help" my truck stop when i have a heavy load...its a little arm thing connected to my brake lines from the dif. cover...but my question is should i take it off...or swap axles and put that thing on even though iam doins SOA..?

Swapping axles or doing a SOA setup will have no bearing on the rear brakes or the proportioning valve. Its part of the brake system, not the axle, and NEEDS to be hooked up to funtion as intended.

You do have the option of eliminating it as many have. But just not hooking it back up is a really bad idea. If you wanna try it without the valve, you will need to afix it in the fully open position, IE UP. Zip ties will work, but be sure it cannot come loose as you could loose all rear brakes.

Doing this will cause you to have full braking to the rear axle, all the time.

I did this for a time and it was fine, I could get the rears to lock up before the fronts, but it was not unexpected as every PU I have owned would do that. Later I swapped in a XJ proportioning valve and called it good.

EAGLE, has written some great threads on this topic. Do a search and read up. He has even cut a factory front block in half to see how it funtions. There are pics somewhere....

Good luck,

CW

oh i think i may zippy tie it up.. then just swap the axles out..

Umm, it'll still work regardless of position.

The linkage on mine fell off some years ago (before I bought it) and the rear brakes worked fine.