I thought that I would give this one more shot. Any ideas you have will be much appreciated. 1974 4-door Maverick, 200 I6, auto, power steering New front shoes and wheel cylinders, freshly turned drums, inside diameter matching. New master cylinder, new brake hoses. System just bled. On a sudden stop, a stop with a lot of pedal pressure, the passenger side front locks up and slides. What in the world can I be overlooking? I know that one answer would be to swap to disk brakes, but I just don't have the wherewithall right now. Any ideas? Thanks for reading. CommieHook
Check the wheel cylinders to see if one is leaking. I've had two rebuilt wheel cylinders leak when installed in the last few years. A leak will get the drum all gucked up and cause that brake to grab. When you're assembling the brakes flush the old dirty fluid out and be sure no dirt or debris gets into the system.
Thanks Jsarnold. Both wheel cylinders are brand new (The passenger side is on it's SECOND brand new cylinder, just in case the 1st one I put on there was faulty!) and I've been in both sides several times each the past few days. No leakage. Brand new brake fluid throughout. CommieHook
Are the piston diameters correct for the application. Do you possibly have a different dia. whl cyl on each side??? Gotta tell you... Front drum brakes went the way of the doe doe for a reason. What your experiencing is one of em. Now...Do the adjusters work well??? do they spin freely. Are the energizer cables the proper length (same on both sides) Are the adjusters correct??? One spins clock wise...One spins counter to expand(turn out) and keep the drag on the drums. If they are new look for an "R" and "L" on em. Each should be marked for the side they belong on (good ones anyways) Look at these things when you have a chance and see what you have and let us know. Good luck!!!
Rebleed the drivers side again. It's possible there is still a bit of air in the line not letting that side have full pressure. There also may be a restriction in the line on that side. You can usually flush the line with alcohol if there is and the gunk will come out. Another thing you could try is swapping the drums side for side to see if it still locks up on that side or if it changes to the other side. One drum could have embedded grease in it making it grab. Again, clean with alcohol or brake cleaner to make sure.
Yes its possible...The steels are the same, just the friction material is shorter. The brakes can work poorly if this is the case...Especially if its on one side only. (the correct side will grab first) Good catch Everett!!! :Handshake
Let's see, I have the primary shoe, that is the one with the least amount of friction material, facing the front of the car. I have swapped the drums back and forth to see if that changed anything, nope. Both set of shoes are clean. The adjusters seem to work fine. I have just rebled the brakes. Here's a question for you all. I know that the adjusters work when you apply the brakes when the car is traveling in reverse. Do the brakes have a way of removing the shoe pressure if they have been overtightened? Do you see what I'm asking? CommieHook
When my uncle was doing brake work, he said rebuilt shoes were sprung, and didn't give as good stopping power as new ones. He had a shoe archer, it ground material off the ends of the shoes making them mate the drums like a new set would. You might pull the drum off and look at the shoes, and see just where they are touching the drum.
i had a f150 that had this problem on the rear. a new spring kit ended up fixing it. they are cheap, its sometimes called the hardware kit
Have you replaced all the brake hardware...Springs/hold down springs etc... If you havent...The springs may be weak, especially the brake adjuster springs which attache to the adjuster levers. Cranking the shoes out too far will not diminish the applied force to the drums. It will make em drag/lock up or overheat and can make the brake pedal feel like its rock hard (too hard) Are you getting an even scuff pattern over the whole surface of the shoes or only on the ends or in the middle??? Its possible they are not arched to meet the drum properly. Re-arching shoes is something that isnt done anymore (It was dangerous) Put lots of asbestos in the air for all in the shop to breathe...Shoes/pads no longer contain asbestos but the practice of re-arching shoes is dead. I can tell you from personal experience the only 4 wheel drum car I ever owned that did not behave as yourse does was my 48 plymouth coupe, It had a wheel cyl for each shoe up front. nice set up and fool proof. Both my mavs behaved as yourse does to some degree till the drums were replaced with discs. Barring out of round drums/loose wheel bearings/bad front end parts (upper control arm bushings come to mind) or faulty new brake parts...What you are experiencing is the nature of drum brakes. If you have a serious restoration shop in your area that does vintage cars...They may have the equipement for re-arching shoes and the know how. Its worth a try. Otherwise I would just adjust em up to get the best pedal and as even a stop as possible from em and then remeber that they will behave poorly in a panick stop situation. Or if they get wet.(Rain can really amp up the pucker factor on a drum drum car) Good luck man!!!
