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1929 pulls to the left when braking

Started by 29UJohn, May 15, 2014, 09:25:44 PM

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29UJohn

My 29 now pulls to the left when I brake.  I pulled both right side wheels and checked the shoes and drums and they were dry, no signs of leaking brake fluid or grease.  I adjusted the brake shoes after I replaced the wheels. 

Any suggestions on what to check?

A few hundred miles ago I did a full 5000 mile service by the manual.  I also had the brake master cylinder rebuilt, and bled the brakes several times until the pedal was good and tight.  After that all seemed quite well, the brakes were working better than they had in a long time.  But one day when I braked the car pulled to the left, and it has been doing that ever since. I now instinctively turn the wheel to the right when I brake so the car will stay straight ahead.   :-\

The instruction book states that the hydraulic brakes are "absolutely self-equalizing in its application." - which indeed they should be.   This leads me to wonder if the wheel alignment might be the problem.

Any ideas would be appreciated.
John
1929U 4 Dr

chetbrz

John,

I would think that if the wheel alignment was off the car would pull to the left all the time.  It seems to me that the left brake is grabbing harder then the right.   I would redo the brake shoe alignment course and fine adjustments.   As far as the hydraulics are concerned unless you have an air bubble on the right side all the cylinders will exert the same pressure to the shoes.   Sounds to me like the shoes on the right side are not adjusted so the majority of the brake shoe catches the drum surface.

My two cents, Chet...
http://www.1948Plymouth.info           Web Master - Forum Administrator - AACA member

Old Man

#2
How are the surfaces of the drums and shoes? The shoes can become glazed over and glassy looking. Then they won't stop anything. It was the nature of those old systems and one of the reasons we went to discs. I've been known to have to take a rasp to the shoes to roughen them up to get them to stop in unison again. As Chet and you say, all of the shoes have to be out and touching their drums for the fluid to then start to exert pressure on all the drums. Until all shoes are in place and rubbing on their respective drums, no shoe can start dragging it's drum down to a stop. So it's usually a matter of one shoe "grabbing", the left in this case, or one shoe slipping around it's drum without out doing it's thing,the right in this case.
    Personal story: Years ago before I knew a great deal about cars, my wife and I had a 1966 Chev which we had bought new. (Yes I am an Old Man.) It was a stick and we used the tranny to slow the car down and stayed off the brakes. I think this went back to our British car days when appling the brakes didn't do much anyway. So long story short,the brakes on the Chevy weren't working very well and my wife took the car to a Chev/Olds dealer to have a brake job. Next thing she knows they are putting the wheels back on and the mechanic takes the car over across the road to a plaza and starts booting the car up to speed and hammering the brakes. Backwards and forwards,backwards and forwards. Ad nauseaum. He brings the car back and says to the wife,"You and your husband are real stick shift drivers and are not using the brakes enough. They needed the glaze taken off and the automatic brakeshoe system reset. It resets going backwards. They're OK now. No charge." (Those were the days!) So you may just have to do a couple of panic stops out in the boonies to clean up the shoes and drums or take off the wheels and do it manually. My 2 cents.         

29UJohn

Old Man,
I think you are right.  10 years ago I had the drums turned and the shoes relined.  The brakes worked fine after that for many years.   The recent  problem started after I had the mater cylinder rebuilt and adjusted all the brake shoes.  I thought maybe I didn't do a good job adjusting the shoes.  I later pulled the right side wheels and checked and roughed up the shoes some.  I will have to do the left side next chance I get. 
John
John
1929U 4 Dr

29UJohn

I sanded the brake shoes on the front left wheel and swirl sanded the drum.  The car no longer pulls to the left but brakes smoothly while staying  straight ahead.
Thanks!
John
1929U 4 Dr