Drum brakes pull to left why?????

My 1959 Edsel is now officially my daily driver.

But, i have a problem with my brakes... they are drums all around...My question is this....why does my car pull to the left when I apply the brakes?

How can I repair this???

can it wait awhile? I'm in the process of shopping for a power brake conversion kit and maybe even go with discs in the front...within the next couple of weeks....


I will drive it to work and back daily about 16 miles of pretty much freeway round trip....


Thanks in advance...TD

 

[QUOTE....why does my car pull to the left when I apply the brakes?
There are several reasons that this could happen. First thing I would do would be pull BOTH front wheels & drums off & inspect shoes for contamination from grease OR brake fluid leakage from a wheel cylinder. If you dont see anything like that than re***embly drums & adjust the shoes with the star adjuster. This can be done by adjusting till the drum gets a little drag on it, remember that what might feel a little tight to turn by hand is in no way to tight for a 4000lbs car to turn. If this makes it better ,but not quite right just adjust a little more.You relize that if the car pulls say to the left that you need to either back off the left some or tighten the right some more. some people get confused as to the fact that '' it pulls left so it must be the left brake '' An old car like that would be prone to wheel cylinder leakage & fluid contamination of shoes.If so replace the shoes ,dont try to clean them up.The one other thing that might cause this is a collapsed brake hose.If everything looked good on the shoes & wheel cylinders & adjustment is right than replace the hose on the side that DOES`NT pull. Brake fliud will flow faster to one side than the other & cause a pull. Also brake shoe adjustment on rears should be done for pedal height.A low pedal that gets better after you pump them once or twice is usually an adjustment problem. Hope this helps you out.

 

also look at the suspension, if an upper control arm bushing (for example) is shot it'll pull hard when you put on the brakes, because of the change in wheel alignment when the slack gets taken up.

 

I applied the brakes on my truck once to slow down from, oh, lets just say Interstate speed and the truck changed lanes to the right, RIGHT NOW! Luckily the guy beside me had the wits and reflexes to move over to the safety parking strip or it coulda been messy.
It was caused by differential oil that leaked past a bad LEFT REAR axle seal that caused it to pull to the RIGHT.
So check the rears too, along with what muffman58 said.

 

Thanks guys,
I will do that and let you guys know what it was......TD

 

I don't know about Edsel brakes, but alot of drum brakes can be adjusted by, simply, getting going in reverse and hitting the brakes hard.
That uses the weight of the car to turn the self adjusters.




JOE

 

In addition, a toe-out condition can amplify a brake pull problem.

 

Cool! I didn't know this... I'll try this first.

Thanks, TD

 

have you recently drove through a puddle or water somewhere? same thing happened to me on my 61 chevy daily, and I pulled the drums tightened the adjuster with a screwdriver and it fixed. I'm pretty sure those brakes are self adjusting, just set and release the e brake a few times.

 

But remember:

Repeated brake applications backing up without going forward won't work. Ya' have to roll forward and reapply the brakes before backing up again.

 

I wonder if Edsels have self adjusting brakes? Fords did not, but Mercs did, from 58-60.

 

A problem i've had with self-adjusters is that they often don't work. If any of the return springs are weak, or that star wheel adjuster is rounded off, they won't work right. Before I changed my car to disk on the front, it would randomly pull to the left or the right. I believe part of the problem was caused by a worn upper balljoint on the right side. I think the rest of the problem was because drum brakes **** ***.

 

I don't think this is correct. A low pedal that gets better after pumping is a sign of air in the lines. You would need to bleed those brakes.

 

Loose brake adjustment will also result in a pedal that will pump up, btdt.

 

Thank`s squirrel for the back up. You know sometimes you try to impart your 30+ years of mechanical experience to someone,and they look at you like your from frickin Pluto.There`s no subs***ute for BEEN THERE,DONE THAT! I`m sure that you as well as many other old timer`s here know that brakes have GOTTA be right.I love shortcuts as much as the next guy,but backin up & hittin the brakes ? PLEASE!

 

I didn't have a chance to read the other posts but usually, when that has happened on one of my old trucks, the rubber flex hose has collapsed. When you press on the brake, one side starts to brake sooner. The bad side builds pressure, but slowly. Then, when you let off, the good side releases as it should but the bad side holds pressure. So you can feel it pull when you apply and after you release.......just some thoughts

 

I agree.

Here's a quick check for out of adjustment drum rear brakes.

Pull the E-brake handle a few clicks, but make sure it's not engaged. Step on the brake pedal. If the stroke decreases you need to adjust them up.

 

....hambers actually have parking brakes? that's news.

 

Damn now I gotta buy a prking brake...

 

Yeah! That's kinda' hard to believe isn't it.

Believe it or not, all except one of my cars has an E-brake that actually works. I've had the cable kit for that one 10 years, but haven't installed it yet. Good thing it's a Turbo 350.

Here's a good one for ya'. One night I parked my stick O/D '55 Chevy at a movie theater parking lot, in gear w/o pulling on the e-brake. Come out after the show and see my car's parked in a different location several spots away .

I walked up to the car and a guy comes forward and says, "Your car started moving after the car in front of ya' left. I put my catchers mit under the tire to stop it from rolling away". I thanked him bunches and offered to buy him a dinner, case of beer, etc..

Why did it roll? I have the solenoid hooked to a switch under the dash (the ol' 6 speeds forward trick). When I turned the ignition switch off it de-energized the O/D solenoid, I must've had the clutch in to release any pressure on the O/D unit, which put the ****** into free-wheeling mode. Thankfully, the parking lot had a very slight grade. After initially parking the car it creeped forward against the car parked in front of me. When he moved, it was soap box derby time .

Valuable lesson learned. Use e-brakes when ya' have'm, especially with an O/D.

Oh yeah!, almost forgot. Now I always park an O/D in reverse. There's a reverse slider shaft in the ****** to manually disengage the O/D unit when you put it in reverse. Something about O/D gear sets not wanting to rotate backwards .

I have another story about e-brakes and push ****on Torque-Flites, but I'll save that for another day .

 

I can just about guarantee that this is the problem. If your flex hoses are old, they will break down and the inner part of the hose can become a flap, of sorts, and when you apply the brake, it shuts off brake fluid flow on that side.

I've seen it happen more than once.

JayD

 

Why am I resurrecting a thirteen year old thread about drum brakes?
Because if you google "drum brakes pulling to one side" this is the first item that comes up.

I had this problem after installing new shoes on my OT Impala.
Turns out the edge of the old shoe had worn a little spot into the spindle backing plate (from years of travelling in and out those few millimeters) and the metal of the new shoe was getting hung up on the edge of that groove.
Grinding the plate smooth in that area solved the problem.
Hope this will help somebody thirteen years from now.

 

Good info to share in this day of disc brakes; what used to be common repair tech has to be discovered and learned anew.

But; you should really weld up the wear grooves and then grind them flat so the shoe is supported evenly on all the pads.

 

I have a single reservoir master cylinder...I dont have a parking brake...I have an emergency brake!!! (Two is one and one is none)
Chappy

 

Some people think they have all of the answers....

Backing up and hit the brakes to adjust them.

That is how self adjusting brakes work. All of those extra springs and levers move when you apply the brakes when you back up and hit the brakes... Only in reverse... That is because the shoes move differently forcing that little lever at the bottom to turn the adjuster. If the shoes are adjusted correctly there isn't enough movement to move that lever.

But for all of that to work, everything has to be cleaned and lubed.

 

Drum brakes have a primary and secondary shoes. One has more or longer lining on it. I have seen quite a few cars where one side had both long shoes and the other side had both short shoes on it. This will cause it to pull to the side with both long shoes on it. By the way the short shoe goes to the front on each wheel.

 

Lots of little things come into play with a drum brake pull. Uneven wheel bearing torque, something loose in the front end. In the day when we arced shoes to drums, we had less pull issues. Old timers who taught me liked to keep both front drum diameters within .010 of each other. Grease on the lining can do it too. Worn pull-back springs, this is why all of our brake jobs got fresh springs.

 

To isolate whether it's coming from the front or rear, get up to maybe 20 mph, let go of the steering wheel, give the brakes a stab and if the wheel QUICKLY turns it's the front. If not, it's the rear. Be ready to grab it and straighten out.

 

In my life as an Auto Mechanic (not a parts replacer) which started about 1970, I was working in an Auto Center in Southern California, San Diego, Fed Mart in San Carlos, (close to El Cajon) and being ASE certified in Brakes, Tuneup, Front end, Exhaust, There was one thing that we tried every once in a while...
If the brakes pulled to either side, and we were able to check everything out to be correct as it was supposed to be, yet still pulled, try swapping brake drums side to side. That worked MANY times in a situation otherwise not solved.
finally quit working as an auto mechanic about 1995.

 

First, know exactly how each component in the system is supposed to function. Second, take stuff apart and look at it closely for wear, mis-***embly or leakage. Third, pick the brains of experienced folks like HAMBers and mechanics for the usual suspects to look for. Fourth, if you haven't found the problem yet, look at the related systems (bushings, bearings, ball joints and kingpins in this case) that might be outside the initial system, but can affect it. Fifth, if you still haven't found the problem, grab a beer and go through the first four steps again. You might have missed something, and a cold sudsy either helps slow down your rush or relaxes you enough to find that "aha!" moment.