new bearings, new brake pads and uneven braking.

Belgian1979vette

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Apr 4, 2008
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Koersel/Belgium
As some of you know, I had to redo a bearing because it failed. When ordering, I also got myself a set of Brake HPS pad to mount on the calipers.
I mounted them after I reshimmed the rear right disc to a runout below .005" and this is now the case.

Anyway, after a long hard day of work to get my rear suspension together and bleed the whole brake system. I went out for a drive and the car started to seriously pull to the right.
I did some checking on a road with loose sand and the front right wheel is locking up faster than the left or rear brakes do.

Now this car always had a slight pull to the right when I still had my old pads in there which I attributed to the rotors that I reused after doing my complete resto. They were sandblasted and cleaned, but did have surface pitting. I expected the pitting to dissappear after some miles of driving, but the oem type pad were to soft to really do anything. Anyway, the front right rotor has a slightly less amount of pitting than the rest does, so I attributed the slight pull to that.

However, with the new pads the pulling is severe to the extent I really have to hang onto the steering wheel in order not to run off the road.

I tried the following so far :
- test if brake fluid was coming out of the hoses, and that was the case.
- test if the flexible hoses were open with compressed air and that was ok.
- rebled the brakes on all four corners and that is ok.

I still had it pulling, albeit a bit less maybe. It still wants to lock up my right front wheel faster than the rest with the associated pull on the steering wheel. Seems to do it faster when the brakes have been used some and are hot.
I'm about to pull my hair out.

Any ideas on what to do next ? Rotor replacement ?

PS : front discs are still the original rivetted items.
 
Jack up the front and see if the wheels have equal drag, if not, you have a bad brake line, most likely...use the stock rubber style, and many comments about the braided/lined flex lines are a PIA and lousy reliability....

I had my left front lock up really badly some years ago...fought the car home for about 50 miles, it was HATING me.....

:surrender:

maybe check the pistons are straight in the cylinders too, not cocked over at some stupid angle and wearing hell outta the pad......

over the 22 years I have had this car, the brakes are the most troublesome part of the car, on a recurring basis.....
 
When you replaced the old pads, was there a difference in wear on right vs. left?
 
Mine always had a pull to the right which was more noticeable the harder I braked. I attributed it to the kinked hard line to the driver's side caliper which did myself soon after I got the car. Sure enough when I finally got around to replacing all the front hard lines, it went away.

Does the right wheel seem to free up properly after braking, or feel like it might be dragging? Do the caliper pucks move freely? Try swapping the pads on the wheels? Have you felt it to see if it gets hot just driving, indicating dragging?

What method of bleeding did you use? I found the hand pump vacuum from the caliper always sucked a little air in from the bleeder threads, leaving a tiny bubble in there. Two people brake pedal/bleeder at caliper was sometimes hit or miss if the one or the other missed a cue. I made a pressure brake bleeder which works like a champ getting all the air out, even the little ones that float back up to the top of the loops in between cycles of pedal bleeding.
Doesn't really sound like a bleeding problem though.

I dunno, Yves. Good luck!
 
I have no kinks in the hard lines.

I bled the brakes with my son, having him pressing the predal and me opening, closing the bleeder untill everything is out.
Meanwhile I got myself a set of flexible hoses as these are already quite old. Will report back asap.
 
I changed the rubber hoses to the calipers on all four corners and now the brakes are even.

So, whats the verdict? Kinked hose?

Since you just did this, does your rear hose cross the parking brake cable real close? Mine does:

458f625bedc84d.jpg

I don't have contact with the parking brake cable.

The guy where I got my hoses told me current day brake fluid eats the inside of the hoses. The gives of pieces of rubber that clogs up the hose. It usually becomes apparent when taking off calipers and bleeding brakes. He changes them on regular basis whenever taking off a caliper or hos/line
 
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