Brakes Issue

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Brian Davies
356 Fan
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2008 12:41 pm
Location: USA

Re: Brakes Issue

#16 Post by Brian Davies »

I am replying to / bumping my own thread to add solution information for anyone that stumbles on this thread later via a search engine.

When I eventually decided to tear into the system, here is what I found:

* Right rear brake shoes covered in gear oil. Pistons frozen.

* Left rear pistons frozen. Parking brake "link" bar was installed backwards, so the parking brake had WAY too much slack on that side and didn't engage.

* Left front pistons frozen.

* Right front had one piston that would move. The other wheel cylinder was frozen.

Yeah... so.. not good. I decided to stop messing around.

Replaced all brake shoes.
Replaced all wheel cylinders.
Replaced all brake pins, springs, keepers.
Replaced all of the soft brake lines for all four wheels.
Replaced both rear hard lines. (Did not replace center tunnel line or the line over the transmission yet)
Replaced right rear wheel bearing seal. (I know the transmission is probably low on oil - to do list)
New fluid, bleed it out.
Adjusted/checked the clearance from the master cylinder to the push rod from the pedal.
Cleaned drums.
Fixed the left rear parking brake link bar.
Adjusted clearance with star wheels.

Result: Car brakes straight and true. The brakes feel a little weak/mushy, so I'm guessing it could be due to a bad bleed job or maybe the new shoes don't match the curvature of the drums yet and it's not contacting enough surface area. I will know more when I drive it more. So even though it's not 100%, this is a HUGE improvement over the way it was before.

Brian

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Jon Schmid
356 Fan
Posts: 1797
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:32 pm
Location: La Mirada, CA

Re: Brakes Issue

#17 Post by Jon Schmid »

Just so I'm clear, it took 7 years to fix all this? I'm glad your brakes are working better, but you're apparently a much more patient person than I am... 8)

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