I am looking for some help on a possible breaking issue I am having. Please note that I am not very technical. Anyway, the issue that I am having is that the car pulls to the left when braking. I took off the front left tire and examined the drum and brake parts. I noted that there is a seal in the drum that looks to be dented. If anyone has a part # for NAPA or NPD or somewhere I can find one. I also noted that when applying the brakes, the wheel brake cylinder (WBC) looks like it is not functioning properly. There is a 'rod' that moves out of the WBC when the brake is applied and the rod on the left side of the WBC moves in an upward direction. I am not sure if the rods are supposed to move straight out of the WBC or if they are supposed to move in an up and down motion. The rods also do not move simultaneously, the left side rod moves and then the right side rod moves. Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Jay

Did you verify the brake shoes were adjusted the same on both sides. That would be my first step I guess.

i think you are talking about the grease seal cap being dented...just cosmetic, wouldn't worry about it. first rule of drum brakes is, you shouldn't apply the brakes with the drums off, the wheel cylinders don't like that and they can fail shortly after. mis-adjustment would be my first guess, but since you say the pushrods coming out of the wheel cylinders are doing funky things...i'd pick a set of them up and replace. look at the brake shoes carefully...any fluid on them will cause them to expand and tighten up causing a pull as well.

Please take a picture of what you are describing. It sounds to me like nothing may be wrong other that it needs some adjustment. Jeff is correct though, don't ever apply the brakes with the drum off, nothing good can happen. Also I would not get to hung up on one moving and the other not with no drum in place. During real braking, a 1000+ pounds are acting on both sides. They will move unless something is really messed up..

You asked about part numbers & where to get parts. For brakes the answer is pretty much anywhere. Every big name auto part store sells every single brake part for these cars. Many will be in stock or just a day away, pretty cheap, with a lifetime warranty. Wheel cylinders are probably $15 or less. Full sets of hardware usually under $10. Shoes are cheap. Drums almost never need replacement...just have them turned for $15 each.

Just call your favorite auto parts store, tell them year/make/model, and whatever parts you need. They'll get 'em quickly if they don't already have them on the shelf...brake parts for these cars are not rare and with few exceptions are still in full production.

If I were you, I think I'd consider just doing a full brake job if you don't know how long it's been...with all new parts. Less than $100 and a weekend project and the system will be like brand new again. A Haynes or Chilton's manual, as lousy as they are for most things, will walk you thru a brake job perfectly fine if you haven't done one before. Just do one wheel at a time, using the other side as a model for when you forget where a spring goes...

does it ALWAYS pull left? usually with drum brakes , the first run after its been sitting , it will pull, one or the other side ,then be ok...when I had my 57 Stude , I did always drive out on my street then hit the brakes hard once or twice to see which way they would pull that day...but usually aftter that first , they would be ok, until car sat a few days again.

if it always pulls left , maybe just an adjust ment...OR if car has been in a wreck, frame can be bent making it pull left (I once had an Opel Kadett doing that , when I measured between front and rear wheels ,left side was 1" shorter, making the car brake to the left)

Thanks for the info. I will look into it more this weekend and try the adjustments.
It does pull left all of the time.
The seal that I mentioned is on the inside of the drum, it appears to be an oil seal or grease seal. I will look for a replacement locally.
I would like to get a service manual for the car. Can anyone recommend a specific manual, a really good one, (Chilton or Haynes). Is there a part # on the manual that I can refer to when looking for one, and what is the best place to get one.
I tried attaching some photo's but the site would not allow them. They were smaller files (500kb) but when the site tried to add the files it showed "This Page Can't Be Displayed". Not sure why it does that. I sent the photo's to my desktop and then browsed them using the file manager, and then tried adding them, and then got the message "This Page Can't Be Displayed".

Jay

Vikki's site should have the info you need.

http://thefirstgensite.com/html/librarydex.htm

Greetings to all of you. I am a new member and a new owner of a 1968 Firebird. I have the same problem but only it pulls to the right during braking action. I had my brakes redone including replacing the wheel brake cylinder and brake splitter block (below the brake boster). It still pulls severely. My mechanic said that the idler arm and pitman arm is causing the pool. I replaced the idler arm but have yet to test drive it due to failed water pump. if it still does it, I will move on to the pitman arm. Right now, I do not see any play on the pitman arm when I shake the wheel side to side or up and down. Did you, Jay68, ever resloved this problem? If so, can you tell me how? Thanks.

You also need to consider that other front end problems could be causing it to pull to one side the the brakes are applied, like worn out control arm bushings or other parts.

Ok. Thanks Bob. I will keep that in mind. I hope the new idler arm fixes it.

x2 Time is money and parts are cheap.