1964 Rear Brakes Locking

[Patrick H.]

Hello All,

There are two 1964 Corvettes (both convertibles coincidentally) here in town that have a problem with rear brakes locking up. Both have non-power stock systems with original style master cylinders. Both cars are in good to excellent condition, onoe being frame-off restored.

With both, application of the brake pedal when moving causes the rear brakes to lock up. Incessant attempts at adjusting the rear brakes makes no difference at all. One of the cars has been at the mechanic's for 3 months (no lie) as they work on it occasionally when new ideas pop up. To date, no one here has solved the problem.

Any ideas? Neither system originally came with a proportioning valve, and neither owner wants to deviate from a stock setup.

Thanks,

Patrick

[Duke W.]

Re: 1964 Rear Brakes Locking

I'd recommend focusing on the parking brake cables. They can get sticky.

With the drum removed their action can be viewed and it can be determined if they are sticking and not allowing the shoes to fully retract.

If they show less than perfect action it would be a good idea to remove them, flush them out with a solvent like paint thinnner, then treat the cables to some Lock-Eze or similar graphite lubricant.

IMO the rear brakes are overbiased for modern (griper), tires and I may end up either resleeving my rear cylinders if I can't find any that fit with 1/16" or 1/8" less bore.

Duke

[Clem Z.]

Re: 1964 Rear Brakes Locking

the type of lining has a lot to do with this problem as i have seen this on other cars. mrs clem had a buick that we bought used that did this all the time till i replaced the rear shoes with genuine GM parts. after that no problems.

[Kenneth S.]

Re: 1964 Rear Brakes Locking

I had a similar problem with my '63. I got Raybestos shoes at PepBoys and that solved it.
Ken