C2 - Car pulls to one side when braking!

[Joe C.]

Re: You might check your front suspension parts.

James:

A very good place to start. First, make sure that all of your friction areas are clean and rust free. Cleanup with some emery, then lightly lube ALL (including and especially the shoe contact points on the backing plate). After assembly, pull on the self adjuster cable, to make sure that everything is free, and working smoothly. Assuming that you have a brake spoon, manually adjust both sides until there is EQUALLY slight drag at the drums. Then take the car for a ride, without backing up, and test. IF the problem is with the adjusters, then that will solve it. Back up a few times, and apply the brakes for final adjustment. Test again, if it now pulls, then recheck assembly and/or change to manual adjusters.

Joe

[James W.]

Re: You might check your front suspension parts.

Joe,

In your last message you mentioned a self adjuster cable, what "cable" are you refering to?

Thanks,

James West

[Joe C.]

Re: You might check your front suspension parts.

James:

The cable may be for Chrysler's system. It has been a while, and GM probably uses a plate with a rod instead.
By "pulling on the cable", I meant to say that you can mimic the self-adjusting mechanism, and manually "make up" on the star wheel in order to make sure that everything is working properly.

Joe

[James W.]

Re: You might check your front suspension parts.

Duke,

I took the right front wheel off last night and brought the drum in top the machine shop here at work today and had the drum measured. The ID is not out of round, but it is at the just below the ID limit at 11.089" in inside diameter. Looks like it's time ot replace the front drum? You had asked me to let you know what the drum casting numbers are. The right drum casting number is 3828671. The max diameter is not stamped into the drum anywhere that I can see.

I am going to proceed with replacing the drums and cleaning and lubricating the self adjusters. You mentioned a product called loc-eze. Where can this be purchased, and what would be a good alternative if I can't find it?

Thanks,

James West
Omaha, NE.

[Duke W.]

Re: You might check your front suspension parts.

Do the same with the other drum before you proceed.

671 is the original front drum casting number on my J-65 SWC. Right now a couple of us are trying to sort out whether base and J-65 front drums are different or the same. The AMA specs indicate a different web thickness for J-65 versus base, which would mean a different drum casting.

Your wear is quite a bit for base brakes with only 90K miles, but maybe they were turned during their life. On the other hand, maybe it was an original J-65 car. J-65 linings were more durable than base, but they caused more drum wear. I think many J-65 cars had "brake jobs" along the way - new organic linings and drums turned. The cause for this may have been wheel cylinder leaks as the cars aged, not lining wear. J-65 linings and drums will last well over 100K miles of street driving, but the wheel cylinders can start leaking long before the linings and drums are worn out unless they had rigorous brake fluid change maintenance, which most did not. If you take your car to a commercial brake shop with a leaky wheel cylinder, they will always want to replace the linings, and replace or turn the drums, and most customers would not question this.

If the other drum is not about the same ID, that could be the source of your problem as new linings would not bed in at the same rate due to the difference in contact arc.