jimdvan

I restored my 64 with all new brake components, lines, hoses, master and wheel cylinders, you name it. The only parts not replaced were the drums, they were turned, and the connecting blocks. They were cleaned. The brakes pull to the left no matter what is done in adjustment or or drum/shoe swap. the alignment is good. I retro fitted a power brake booster and used a new power brake master cylinder from Zip.

Any suggestions? Its driving me and the brake guys nuts.

Jim

Matt Gruber

i'd take apart the wheel cyl's and inspect them. a tight piston will cause a pull

MikeM

Matt has a good point. You can get an idea if this is going on by pulling the brake drum half off and have someone apply the brake. Watch the action on each side. You can see it if this is the problem.

The other thing, if your drums are not turned the same diameter and the shoes were not ground to fit the drums, you will experience this problem. If one drum is cut to a large oversize and the other is standard, for example, your symptoms will prevail. :)

K2

As pointed out the drums have to be the same diameter but the problem of uneven braking on new relines is usually improperly arced linings. Pull the drums and inspect the wear on the new linings. Most likely you will see wear on the leading and trailing edges of the linings and no wear in the center. This means the lining is not contacting the drum evenly and will cause erratic braking behavior especially if it is on the leading shoe. It is imperative that you have uniform contact over the length of the lining for smoothe braking. :cheers:

Subfixer

Hee's another place to look, and it's not the brakes... I have the same problem right now, but I found the problem. Worn lower control arm bushings. The car aligns perfectly, and the brakes are adjusted, but when I hit the brakes, I can actually see the left front wheel "move". I got under the car and checked all the suspension and all my rubber was quite worn.

MikeM

K-2 explained what I did a very poor job of doing. To clarify: one drum can be larger than the other without causing problems as long as the shoes are ground to fit the different radii. This usually doesn't happen on a driveway brake job. If one drum is the standard diamter the shoe should contact the drum across the entire face of the shoe. As the diameter of the drum grows, shoe surface contact will be lessened. In other words, the shoe ocntact patch will be in the center of the shoe. This can/will cause a pull.

JohnZ

I've had lots of C1's, and restored the brake systems on all of them. One of the keys to properly-operating drum brakes is matching the radius of the shoes to that of the drums so you have the same maximum/uniform shoe-to-drum contact area on all of them. Any good brake shop can measure the I.D. of the drums and "arc-grind" the shoes to match so you get the same contact surface pattern on all four wheels. On my last one, a '57 (non-self-adjusting), I only had to adjust the brakes once in 5,000 miles, and it stopped straight ahead every time. Also check to make sure you have the same size wheel cylinders on both sides; the bore size is cast into the outside of the cylinders. :thumbs:

jimdvan

Thanks to all for the advice. I've found that the more I drive the car the better the brakes work. I suspect the linings were not contoured to the drums and their starting to do so on their own. Or, it was a tight wheel cylinder that is coming around.

Matt Gruber

Sounds good!
i've changed numerous shoes and NEVER neededto arc them.
Tidbit:
when i lived in NJ, the inspection station would give a report on each wheel's braking force. Left and Right were almost NEVER equal, and unless they were way way out, they passed it.('cause it is normal)