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For some reason, whenever im doing any moderate-fast braking, she wants to lock up and get all squirly. I really have to plan when i need to stop so that i can apply like, 1/3 of the braking power or else i'll be greeted by a quite embarassing little squeal. VERY annoying in stop-and-go traffic. Anybody have any imput?

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It's better to have LUV'd and lost than to have never LUV'd at all.

I would pull the wheels and drums off and check the shoes and the drum. check the brake components for damage.

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Resident lurker

I'll check it out tomorrow morning and let you know how it goes.

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It's better to have LUV'd and lost than to have never LUV'd at all.

I had a problem like that with the yellow luv I had, the wheel cylinder was leaking brake fluid on the shoes and that wheel would instantly lock up, but that was with any pressure on the brakes. Embarrasing as hell skiding to a stop every time you stopped!

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Click on C.M. logo to go to my webpage


RIP R.J.B.

Well, i took off the wheel and started getting at the brakes, and it turns out i have NO experience with drums whatsoever. All the brake work ive done has been with discs, so i guess i'll just take 'er into schwabbies. I think i'd trust them a little more than my own guess-and-check method anyway.

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It's better to have LUV'd and lost than to have never LUV'd at all.

My last 79 had a drum that was out of round when I got it. It would seem to work alright in light braking, until you really needed it to work well and that one wheel would lock solid. It made for some interesting sideways action at a stoplight a couple of times and that was enough for me. Once I got a freshly turned set of drums and new shoes on it, all was well.

Rear brakes are surprisingly simple. Only thing to worry about is getting the shoes on the right way. There is a leading and trailing shoe, one has more pad on it than the other. I forget which is which off the top of my head. The only other problem is going through a can of cleaner getting all that dust out of there. From my experience, if you can get the drum off, you have already won half the battle. The shoes like to wear into a deep groove in the drum, and then refuse to let the drum go when you try to take it off.

When I got my LUV someone had "fixed" the leaking wheel cylinder by capping the line at the rear axle for the left side.

"It won't leak if you don't have it connected!"

But that caused twice the fluid to go to the right side. It would lock up right away.

I'd make sure that both side are connected and working. Jack up the back end, turn the wheel while someone steps on the brake.

-DK

i know that feeling, nothing a bloody big hammer cant fix

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I said no to drugs....But they just wouldn't listen!

No matter how good she looks, some other guy is sick and tired of putting up with her crap!

The trick to getting the drum off is a three-step process:

1. Remove the tire/wheel/retaining screw
2. Grab the drum and pull outward on it so the bearing has play
3. Strike the face of the drum with a large hammer once

The hammer will hit the drum, the axle assembly will move and bounce off the inner bearing and provide a resonating thump that helps remove the drum...

I've seen it done once, and done it once.

-DK

That light pry/tap method does work great on getting the drum off the axle. When I did the rear brakes on my wife's 83 Isuzu pup I had to back off the adjuster through a tiny hole in the back plate. The drums had at least a 1/8th inch lip on the inner edge because they were so worn. Hammering and prying didn't move them a bit. Freeing them from the axle was easy, it was those shoes binding against the lip in the drum that held them on. Since I did that truck, I haven't gone a year without at least pulling the drums and checking things over on my trucks. I'd rather not have to turn that adjuster through the back plate ever again. Felt like I was trying to do main bearings through the oil drain hole.