Canary94GT

My car is a mostly-original '65 i6 with manual drum brakes, which possibly have not been worked on since around 1980 (the car has been mostly garaged except for maybe 5-10k miles since then).

The brakes are pulling the car to the right when I brake somewhat hard. This started happening, at least more-severely, after I went down several steep hills that required significant braking for a prolonged period. Thus I am assuming the pads are dead or the drums are out of round. I'm really not sure.

First of all, I don't have much in the way of experience or tools except the basics, so I will probably have to pay to have this fixed (also, working on something as critical as brakes scares me). Secondly, I don't have that much money to spend as I'm a college student without a job. So I wouldn't want to spend more than $1000-1500 total on this.

My question is - what route should I take to fix this problem? I'm wondering if I should just have the pads/drums replaced (or whatever the problem is) or have a disk brake conversion done. Also, I am not sure what the price difference would be between those options.

Any help and input would be greatly appreciated.

Derf00

What's your budget and what's your goal with your car? Keep it stock or upgrade it?

Personaly, I hate drum brakes, as they require maintenance beyond just replacing the shoes. Disc are WAY easier not only to work on and replace, but in terms of not needing anything in the terms of regular maintenance between changes of the pads.

Edit: Missed the budget figure you gave. I also didn't see you are currently manual brakes. To switch to Pads will require a complete revamp of your braking system including getting a vacuum booster.

I have no idea on the cost of the conversion kits. Someone else can chime in on that.

Canary94GT

No problem on missing those things at first.

After doing some further research, it sounds like an upgrade to disc brakes would be quite costly and probably not worth it (particularly since it's an i6).

I read a little bit about upgrading from a single to a dual bowl master cylinder so that if one bowl goes out, the other set of brakes (front or rear) will still work. Any opinions on the cost/value of that?

RagHead

I would upgrade to a dual bowl master cylinder regardless, safety reasons. The price of the MC and related lines (line kit) should be less than $100.00 but there is the cost of labor to install if you can not do it yourself.

As far as converting to disc there are some reasonable kits out there, most are for 5 lug pattern though. I have seen a 4 lug kit on ebay at a good price. You'll have to decide if you want to go 5 lug or stay 4 lug if you convert. Which ever way you go, get it done right.

Canary94GT

Alright thanks I think I will look further into the dual MC and take my car into the shop this weekend (if it's dry outside for once...) for a brake inspection.

wonso79

Just replaced my single bowl to a dual bowl and was really easy. CJ Pony Parts has 20% off thru march 31st so you can buy the conversion kit for like 60-70 bucks.

Canary94GT

I read there was some modification that had to be done to the kit for it to work, did you have to do any of that?

LynnBob Mustang

I just did a quick look on CSRP's site and you can do a 5 lug disk brake swap with MC for $524 total for the front.http://www.discbrakeswap.com/index.p...ategory_id=1#d

I think he has a kit with a 4 lug disk swap well that is not showing up, you should email him and ask.

Lynn

Canary94GT

Wow, that does not seem like a bad deal at all LynnBob. I was expecting a much higher price for parts.

But I think I will still just get the drums fixed and possibly upgrade to a dual MC.

By the way, loving your build thread.

LynnBob Mustang

Thanks!!
Good luck with the brake fix, the dual MC could truly be a life saver.
Lynn