Hello from Austria!

I have a 1971 CS with power drums in the front and the rear.

I've never been able to get this car to braking real straight, it pulls to the left.

All suspension components are brand new, new drums, new brake shoes, new adjusters and all the small spring hardware for the brakes. everything is correctly installed (shorter brake pad in the front) and i bled the brake system many times so i dont think that its air in a line or so.

I pre- adjusted the shoes that the drums slides on with a slighty drag. I red that the self adjusters will do the rest when backing up an hit the brake. So i did many times, but the car is still pulling to the left..

I'm getting a bit clueless

Thank you all for any tips and ideas!

Greetings

 

Have any of the wheel cylinders leaked fluid in the past on to the brake shoes? Have you replaced the rubber brake line hoses? Did you adjust all 4 wheels basically the same?

 

No, all wheel cylinders are new too. No leaks. The rubber brake hoses are new. Yes, today i tried to adjust the 2 front wheel brakes equally und the i checked the rear brakes too, all drums are with a slightly drag. No one seems like the way is too big till the shoe is touching the drum.

I believe that my adjusters arent working correctly OR the is air in the line to the right front. Maybe it would be better to bleed the system again.

 

Do you have good pedal feel? With the car up on jacks, do all wheels spin freely showing the brakes are fully released? Are the springs that run across the adjusting barrels installed right, allowing the adjusters to turn the star wheels? When was the last time the front end was aligned?

 

Yes, pedal feeling is good, all 4 wheels are able to spin by hand with no stronger force.

The adjuster on the left side wasnt even touching the star wheel and i red somewhere, that this Z-Rod can be bent, so that it is a bit shorter and the adjuster touches the star wheel. I did that on both sides in the front, just to make sure, the adjuster arm is at the star wheel.

The last alignment was about 2 years ago. In austria its a bit difficult to find a good alignment shop for Vintage cars from the US. BUT, the car runs real straight if you dont hit the brake, and there is no odd tire wear or something else that tells me that the alignment is completely wrong.

 

Normally brakes don't cause the car to pull one way or another because the pressure has to equalize before the brakes engage. Are the shoes brand new? Did it do this prior or directly after any work being done? Is severe pulling or mild enough to drive it and see if things settle in?

 

Yes, the shoes are only a few hundred miles old. I restored the car last winter (frame off) and then i made the whole brakes/suspension new.

The car was always pulling slightly to the right when braking harder and at higher speed, which havent bothered me that much, since my brother had the car for a day and he was like 'lets check for the reason, a car have to stay straight while braking, even with 4 drums', so we found out that the left front self adjusting arm isnt touching the star wheel properly, so our idea was that the left front isnt adjusting itself, so it brakes 'harder' on the right side > pulling to the right side.

So we made sure that the adjusters on all 4 wheels touch the star wheel. (Rear was good) and adjusted the both front brakes with a slightly drag on the drums. Then we test drove the car with a few backing up brakes to let the system adjust it self.

Now the result is that the car is pulling terribly to the LEFT side and the left front brake is making a grinding noise, when braking a bit firmer.

I think its time to send the car in winter break and zry to fix these problems next year in spring

Sometimes its just frustrating when the simplest things dont want to work well, but i think everyone of us has made this experience