Gasoline

I hate unfinished threads so I did what I could today to find the problem.

I messed around with the stop light switch, the hairpin retainer, the bushing, the boot and tried to put the grease on the primary piston assembly. The funny thing is that the klick disappeared for a second, but then it came back and disappeared again.

I guess the problem is there somewhere and I will leave it for now. Thanks for all the ideas - that's what is so great about this forum.

120mm

Not technically correct; a well-adjusted and set up drum brake has more braking power than discs. The problem is, drum brakes are more difficult to set up and few mechanics/owners really understand how they work anymore, so practially, the typical disc system is better than the typical drum system.

clowe1965

Once yes, but the heat dissipation is worse than disc, so for the far too common tailgater it wouldn't be a good idea. Also they don't do too well if you get water in them from a puddle.

Is the click coming from inside or outside the car? If it's outside can you narrow down which wheel it is? Also is it just one click upon brake application, or does it continue while the brakes are applied, being proportional to your speed?

Gasoline

The click is coming from inside of the car. It klicks once when I have pressed the pedal far and just releases it. It klicks regardless of speed.

However, I could not hear it the last time I drove the car. Maybe it had something to do with the brake light switch, the hairpin retainer because I was messing around with them before I drove.

I had the brakes apart and everything looked fine. I changed the adjuster on the left front brake, but the car is till pulling slightly to the left when I brake.

Any ideas on how I can fix that?

Sparkiewalt

I guess I just never rode in a car with properly adjusted drum brakes. But I do remember the first time I was in a car with 4 wheel disc brakes ( 1980 something) and the guy was doing about 5 MPH and said watch this and almost snapped my neck it stopped so fast as he hit the disc brakes.... I been sold ever since.

clowe1965

Not sure if a 5MPH brake check counts for anything.....lol.

Sorry bout the asking the same question twice, hard to keep up with threads on the phone half the time.

You would have to get a proportioning valve to adjust the pull, but likely you'll be fiddling with that every few weeks as the system wears. If you don't have one already a dual bowl master cylinder is a fairly important upgrade so either the front or the back brakes will still work if one of them goes out.

Sparkiewalt

Well it sure did stop faster than drum brakes. That was just a practical example..But I think the improvements of disc brakes are self evident with the fact that 4 wheel drum brakes have not been used in many years on a new car that I am aware of. I think any go fast car (V-8) should have to have at least front disc brakes installed. I will be replacing the rear drum brakes as soon as I can on my 1973 Mustang. I am still working on it right now so I am not driving it much, but it will go to my 16 year old son in about 6 months with 4 wheel power disc brakes.

Gasoline

Drum brakes seem to generate debate

Since I have a V8 I should probably switch to disc brakes (the car was originally sold with 6-Cylinder). After all, I like drum brakes but the funny thing is that before I changed parts on the front brakes, the car was pulling to the right when I step on the brakes.

I find it hard to believe that the car pulling left when i step on the brakes is caused by the wheel alignment and bad bushings because the brake test shows that the left front brake apply more. I'm curious what happened with the front left brake? Front left 2.7 and front right 2.2. Left rear 2.0 and right rear 2.2.

I was hoping I could change this by manually change the adjuster on the front left brake.

69thunder

One more thing to check and I don't know if it applies to your year or not. In my year the v-8 wheel cylinders are a little larger than the i-6 ones and I fought the same kind of pull that you are having until I changed them out when they were leaking. On mine at some point someone put one i-6 on one side and a v-8 cylinder on the other. They look identical and unless you set them side by side you may not be able to tell. Just a thought and experience I had.

As far as drum vs. disc goes I see no reason for you to switch unless a) money is no object and b) you are going to do a lot of high performance driving on a track or something. All of my cars have had drums including my drag race set up 69' and I have never had issues with stopping power. There definitely are advantages to disc brakes no doubt but if all you do is cruise or drive the car like a normal human properly adjusted and functioning drums will do the job. Good luck with your pulling issue!

Gasoline

Hello again!

Thanks, but wheel cylinder only differ on rear brakes. They are the same on front regardless off 8 or 6 on a 1971 Mustang.

After changing brake parts I still have problems with the front left brake apply more making the car pull to the left. I thought I could solve it by manually adjusting the the self-adjuster so I just hear a very slight drag. Should I adjust it even more so there is no sound at all? I can also feel that the front left drum gets hot (can barely touch it for 1-2 seconds when coming back to the garage).

The funny thing is when I back out of the driveway and hit the brakes, the steering wheel pulls to the right instead?? Can someone explain this? Should I try to swap the front drums and bearings? The only thing that looks different when looking at old pictures is that the adjusting lever was a little bit more in a vertical position "pointing down". This is a new picture and here you can see that it is more in a horizontal position - as it looks in the book.