hey ya'll. well i finally got the velle on the road on saturday, and put about 300 miles on it in the few short days. anyways. i was heading to work last night, and the stop light turned red, and i was near, so i threw it in 1st and hit the brakes pretty hard, and then i caught myself fighting the wheel to keep it straight. i was doing about 50-55. it has been fine until then. now under braking from about 25+ the car pulls hard to the right, and i have to damn near turn the wheel about a 1/4-1/2 turn just to straighten it out. also when i let off the wheel it tracks too the right pretty bad. but when i picked it up, it was tracking straight.

anybody have any suggestions? they are new brakes, and they worked great until last night. they are 4wheel manual drums.i was suposed to meet justin (moloko) at his work tonight and show him the velle, but looks like its probably not gunna happen. i had checked out the brakes (never pulled the wheels off tho), and i checked the front control arms to see if i had broken one. but it looks good from the outside.

thanks

aaron

sounds like maybe you have a stuck wheel cylinder in one of your front brakes. I'm assuming u mean you have new pads. What about the drums? Do they need to be turned? But from what it sounds like, i would check out the wheel cylinders up front.

thanks.
that is what my dad had said. i didnt feel like working on it tonight, so hopfully i will work on it tomorrow.we just put new rear ones in, and i said why not put new front ones in and my pop didnt wanna do it. well i guess we should have.

yes, what i ment was, it has new pads, and the drums are cut.

thanks for the help.
btw, nice velle.


aaron

Aaron make sure the shoes are adjusted equally.With the front tires off the ground and the tires off,spin the drums and feel the resistance.It should be equal,or you will get a pull.You can also use a drum gauge to measure the inside of the drums and then match it to the outside of drum linings.

Originally posted by BowtieAaron:

btw, nice velle.

aaron Thanks man graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Aaron, listen to Frank on adjusting the brakes for equal resitiance while spinning (should be some, but very little resistance to spinning).

He knows what he's talking about. I know from years of experience that this is VERY likely a matter of one side being adjusted tighter than the other.

Another possibility is that you got grease or other contaminants on the brake shoes and/or drums. Take a can of brake cleaner and spray the shoes and drums after adjusting the brakes to be even.

Steve

Originally posted by Chevl_Steve:
Another possibility is that you got grease or other contaminants on the brake shoes and/or drums. Take a can of brake cleaner and spray the shoes and drums after adjusting the brakes to be even.
I had exactly the same thing happening to me a while ago. It would pull hard to the side, but not always, just now and then. I took the drums off and found that one brake cylinder was leaking just a little bit. It wasn't wet with fluid or anything, the only thing I could see was that the brake shoes were a bit darker on that side. I changed the cylinder, and the problem went away.

Do I understand that the car heads to the right even when the brakes are NOT engaged?

Sounds like the control arm bushings are shot, and/or the shims fell out after the last alignment.

If it does it ONLY when braking, then all the previous replies are accurate.

thanks for the help guys. my dad fixed it while i was at work today. he said the star adjuster was on backwards and the brake shoes were on the wrong way on the one side. and now it stops great. my friend did the brakes on it when the car was at school. and well all i can say is, he wont be doing them again. ALL my brakes were messed up (installed incorrectly) from him.

my dad also thinks the front end needs to be rebuilt. so i think im gunna save for bushings, and disk brakes for the front.

thanks

aaron