frdnut

Also check out your front end for wear as that can cause a pull while braking as well..Tire air pressures are good?

JMD

You MIGHT just have an adjustment issue. Your drum brakes are "self adjusting", but this only happens when you apply the brakes while moving in reverse. Often uneven braking can be resolved by simply backing up and hitting and releasing the brakes firmly several times.

Drums that don't work evenly can usually be the result of;

1. Out of adjustment;
a. brakes not used in reverse enough
b. One or more "adjustment wheels" stuck or rusted together
c. Broken or misplaced self adjuster parts

2. Worn or broken shoes/worn drums
a. overheating can cause linings to "de-laminate" or otherwise disintegrate.
b. overheating can cause drums to crack/fracture

3. Oil or brake fluid on shoes/drums

If out of adjustment, the brakes can be manually adjusted through a slot in the backing plate, if the parts are stuck or corroded, one manual adjustment can have the effect of freeing things up so the manual slack adjuster will work properly.

I vote "yes" on the dual m/c, but imo, properly functioning drum brakes can be more than adequate. My son has drums on his 64 Falcon, which I think work very well, I don't think a disk swap will offer lots of practical advantage for a "cruiser car" like his 64.

Of course if you are one of those people who drive 6" from the back of another cars bumper at 75 mph, hitting the brakes every two seconds, and otherwise dog the **** out of your brakes continually, disks might be in order.

That said, drums are more prone to heat damage than disks with prolonged use, like when you descended those long hills. It isn't really a problem for me because I learned to respect and "preserve" my brakes from the time when I started driving trucks at about 16....

At about 2,800 lbs, it would take a very long steep hill, and generous application of brakes to get your Mustang drums really hot.... but the Seattle area does have some damn big hills, big enough hills that even disk brakes could get smoked with what I would call "abuse".

All that said, barring any fluid leaks on the front left, I THINK that your front left brake is just out of adjustment, (loose).

degins

Unfortunately, it is much more expensive to convert a 6 cylinder car to front disc brakes.

Your drum brakes can be made to work well. It will require a skilled refub using new shoes, drums, hardware, and hydraulics. Installing drum brake shoes correctly requires fitting (bending) the shoes to optimally conform to the drums. Drum brakes can be made to work quite well, but require regular maintenance to remain working. This may be perfectly acceptable if you have the time or inclination, especially if you have more pressing finacial priorities.

CSRP offers does 4 and 5 lug conversions for this applications. Since they use 8 cylinder specification disc brake specific spindles and 11" rotors, they require new 15" or larger wheels and we HIGHLY recommend a 6 to 8 cylinder steering linkage upgrade as well. The brake and linkage swap would end up costing about $800 total. With wheels, this would probably not be considered a low budget option.

There are conversions based on fabricated brackets that mount to your existing spindle and use smaller diameter rotors. I believe that they can use original 14" wheels. These are not usually kits, but generally include a parts list for associated parts and may require some modifications. This choice trades convenience for cost savings. I have not hear anything bad about their performance. They use parts from several brand and model of car/truck and are not suitable if you swap in an 8 cylinder engine.

As said before, be sure that the suspension is in good shape as well.

Canary94GT

Thank you everyone for your contributions to the thread.

I took the stang in yesterday to have the brake situation looked at. Turns out the car was actually pulling to the left, rather than the right like I thought I remembered.

The guy called me back several hours later and said the car was kicking his ***, because he couldn't find the problem. He said all of suspension and steering looked new, the brake pads looked new, and the drums weren't out of round. But the brakes weren't adjusted properly, so they fixed that and it actually made it pull to the left worse.

So he said it could possibly be bad lining on the pads or clogged rubber hoses up at the drums. I told him to go ahead and replace those and see if it helps. They're closed for the weekend, so we'll see on Monday how it goes.

Canary94GT

Sounds like there were some issues with slack in the control arms and apparently the ball joins don't have a grease fitting at all?

Strange, but the guy is fixing those and should have it done by tomorrow afternoon if all goes well.

MetalEd

It took some getting used too, but I am very comfortable with my drums now. I might consider upgrading to a dual master cylinder but I don't want to upgrade my brakes for a couple of reasons., First, the cost when I have so many more expensive things to do to my car. Second, I want to keep my expensive 4-lug rims.
That said, I have had the pulling to one side while braking, I don't think it would be the brakes. I had it after doing a complete bumper to bumper brake rebuild/replacement.
First suspect would be low air pressure, second might be that you need a wheel alignment.
The control arm without a grease fitting is always on the replacement list for a 65-I6. You could have broken/cracked parts that you would not find. But most of all, without greasing the upper control arm for 45+ years, you will really notice a WAY quieter ride after replacing them. You could hear mine coming with the slightest bumps in the road.
Anyhow, I don't think it would be your brakes causing the pulling. Lift your car and test the wheel turn by hand while having someone lightly press the brake. That will give you an idea if they are adjusted equally.
take care.

lucasp

mine was doing exact the same thing and just recently fixed the problem. first i replaced the brake cylinder on the passenger side(napa replacement part did not fit so i just gutted it and rebuild the inside) that didnt work still pulled hard left. and just this week, i rebuild the driver side and come to discover that the cylinders inside were not the same, after the rebuild on the driver side it fixed the problem and when i brake hard there was not any pull. and that left me a happy man.

Canary94GT

Well they replaced the control arms, ball joints and rubber brake hoses and it still pulls... But he said the pulling lessened the longer he drove, so the speculation is now that it is the pads. They're replacing those now -_-

gf wallet

boeing747arowair

sounds like that guy is throwing parts on it like hell in order to charge you instead of heading the problem on the nail first

JHPSTANG

If those brakes have been on there for 30+ years with not much use it would make sense that the wheel cylinders might be in bad shape. most of the parts on drum brakes are cheap and can be replaced easily by someone who has done it once or twice. I'm not saying that your control arms were not the problem, just that brakes might have been a place to start first. I completely rebuilt my drums myself, as a rookie, in a couple hours. The more you fix yourself on these cars, the more you understand how they work so you can diagnose problems that come up. IMHO