I have a 1951 Hudson Hornet that pulls severly to the left upon braking. It gets worse the harder I press on the pedal. All symptoms seem to lead to brakes out of adjustment. However, I have one question. If the wheel cylinder is not functioning properly on the passenger side and the brakes are properly adjusted, wouldn't i get the same symptoms? Need some brake gurus to guide me out of this one. Thank you.
pull to the left usually means there is something wrong with the right. Service both. Check your rear brakes also for proper function. Pinched lines, damaged hoses, worn friction material, bad wheel cylinders, worn wear surface, bearing issues, leaky grease/oil seals. Gotta go pull them apart and see for yourself.
You have the drivers side working but not the passenger side. Stuck wheel cylinder, frozen adjuster/shoes, bad hose or a kinked-pinched line to the passenger side.
I would check the lines make sure youre getting the same amount of fliud out of each side.Then move to the wheel cylinders.
Pull the front wheel cylinders and hone em out and put em back together.... then if it still persist, check hoses!
I had the same problem with severe pull to the left when braking. After going crazy trying to figure out what was wrong, I changed the shoes and *bam no more problems! The shoes were new, so I never suspected them, but I went with some NAPA premium shoes in an all out effort to replace everything, and it was fixed.
My wifes Falcon is a pull to the right that I am going to have to deal with this weekend. I am glad to see this topic here. Gives me a starting point.
Is your fluid low? If it is, you've got a leak and you need to pull the drums. I would first adjust your front brakes, as this is much more likely the problem and much easier to rectify ps: Don't be lazy in adjusting your brakes. Jack the wheel off the ground, tighten the brakes until you feel firm resistance to turning the wheel, then back off 14 clicks (with cold brakes).
With self energizing brakes, each pair of shoes, includes one long and one short lining. IIRC, the short one goes on front. They are a different material, which is more "grabby". Put them on backwards, and they don't work as well. One side backwards, and it will pull.
Make sure to have your front end alignment checked as well. Brakes pulling to the left could also be a symptom of a broken control rod or bad ball joint / tie rod ends. What happens is that when the brakes are applied, the resulting torque causes the tire / wheel assembly to move. This movement could be enough with a bad ball joint or broken control rod to cause the car to pull to the left.
It's time to pull a drum. Most of the time it's shoes contaminated with brake fluid, replace oily shoes! Cars that are not driven much, a wheel cylinder may be frozen. Hose could be constricted. Don't rule out broken or worn suspension.
Be glad it's not a Packard with a "trunion block" in the front suspension. The rear spring mount on the driver's side is in a block of sorts with 4 short heavy coil springs. It takes the kick out of the steering over bigger bumps but that spring now has front to rear movement. To balance the braking force the shoes on the left front are narrower than the shoes on the right. I think like 1/4" narrower...? We get them in all the time where over the years someone made em all the same thinking it was an error. Recently had a 37 Packard in here with a similar situation to yours. It was bad wheel cylinders, more than one. One front had gotten good n stuck and after the 1st few test drives. BTW a 37 has independent front suspension and will behave like yours if stuff's amiss.
jack up and support car. on a creeper spin both front tires. have someone slowly apply the brake and listen.as said adjust brakes first.probably frozen wheel cylinder. if so rebuild or replace both sides.
Jack up car and spin wheels by hand. They should have nearly the same resistance. Perform visual inspection with drums removed. Wetness from brake fluid or axle grease must be resolved. Check your grease seals, already mentioned above. The axle grease can gum up the shoes and make the brakes grab on one side.
My '49 was doing the same thing about a month ago , I have a Mustange II front end and I replaced the pads and the caliper on the right side - still pulled to the left when braking . So then I pulled the left side front wheel off and found that the strut rod was broken in two and allowed the lower control arm to flex back a couple inches when I hit the brakes !
My brother's 58 chevy does that, but I think it's because the rubber is gone out of one of the upper control arm bushings
may want to rebuild the master cylinder too. I have a '57 Ranchero that did the exact same thing, pulled to the left when braking. I mean it would lock the tire up quick. After I bought the Ranchero I replaced all of the brake hoses and rebuilt all of the wheel cylinders and it would pull to the left. I rebuilt the M/C and the brakes work much better. There is still a slight pull but I think I just need to readjust them. I also plan on rebuilding/inspecting the suspension as muched above.
.......Ditto .......I also put in new brake shoes and rebuilt the wheel cylinders.....solve the problem
Parking habits. Do you alway back into ____________ the same way every time you park? Could lead to brakes adjusting more on one side than the other. Seen it, done it with my vehicle. And follow previous HAMBer's advice too, lot of good stuff to check on.
Check the condition of the front wheel bearings. I had a failed front wheel bearing cause similar symtoms.
Had same problem with my Thunderbird. The hose had gone bad. Fluid deteriorates inner part of hose causing it to collapse or clog. Check opposite side that it pulls to.
The Jalopy Journal
