1965 Valiant low brake pressure

Another thing is can you get a pic of the brakes so we can see if there is a problem with the cylinder mounting etc.

I did do the stomp on pedal to try to center pads thing, maybe not hard enough though.

They are Kragens 'Brakebest' brand, not sure if thats any better than the 'Brakeware'. I have took the switch bracket off and pulled the pedal all the way back and pushed it all the way down a few times and that didnt change anything. (Ill try again today when Ive got it out) There is nothing else on the MC its just the cast Iron MC with the backing plate and rod that go into the cab then the lines that come out the other side, so I'm not sure what/where this "residual pressure valve" is and from what I remember thre was nothing extra on the one that failed.

No, I didnt transfer anything from the old WC's to the new ones, And yes Ill take a few pictures when I'm working on it today.

Thanks for all the suggestions

Ill try tightening them all the way and beeding them today, then loostening them till they slightly drag

I have not seen cylinders that came with the pins to go into the shoes is why I ask. They need to be transfered but that is why I ask to post a pic so we can see what is going on being the pedal fell after changing them.

OHHH, I understand what you mean now, the pins for the Shoes not part of the WC Kragen had a newer set of springs that fit the shoes so the pins werent required. The shoes that were on it didnt have the pins but the holes were closer to the edge so that the spring was able to be attatched, and only one of the WC's came with the pins so thats why I went and got a hardware kit and put that on. Ill still take a picture when I get it appart in a few minutes but I think thats what your asking about.

Okay, So I did a stomp on the brakes thing a couple times and heard a lurch in the front like something moved, so I tightened the adjusters as far as they would go and backed them off to the point that the tire stops after 2-3 rotations and it seems to stop alot better, Im going to wait for someone to come home and take it on a test drive and see if that solved my whole problem, if not ill start tearing it down.

I would still like to see a pic as soon as you can post it before taking this car for a drive and possibly wrecking it.

chryslerfat said:

i would still like to see a pic as soon as you can post it before taking this car for a drive and possibly wrecking it.

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Brakebest in a MUCH better brand. I have never seen/heard of not needing the WC push rods before.... These are the push rods, are you sure you dont have these?

No, it does not have the rods, Is it supposed to? Ill actually pull it apart tomarrow, it was pulling to the right when I test drove it today so I know somethings not right. Ill take pictures then, just didnt want to go through pulling them apart today. But that I remember the ones that came off didnt have them either...

Makes complete sense now thinking about it that thats whats missing, But I cant figure out why the brakes were working fine before they went out when it didnt have them

This might explain your statement about "blowing out a wheel cylinder seal"

well I wasnt sure what to call it, it was leaking out one of the boots on the WC.

Heres the best picture of the whole thing.

And heres a closer picture of the top, sorry about the flash couldnt get it any better than that.

Ive got pictures of the bottom and the back I can post if you want to see them, Ill have it apart still tomarrow gonna buy the rods and put them in and check the backs to see if they are missing there too (and why I couldnt move the adjuster on the passenger rear) hopefully those will be correct but with my luck Ill have to pull those apart too.

Thanks for all the help,
Mike.

Well according to the pic with the shoes you have the pins are not needed as the shoes touch the pistons. In your pic it looks correct so pull a rear and see whats going on there.

Where's the facepalm smiley? This is the kinda crap I'm talkin about. You need to pay attention to what was THERE to start with. Did you have the wheel cylinder pins to begin with or not? If you did, then now you have the WRONG wheel cylinders and the WRONG shoes. Did you measure the diameter of the old wheel cylinder and compare to the new? Since Chrysler had several different brake packages, they also used different diameter wheel cylinders. All this is why I said it's imperative to know what you have there now, instead of just blindly throwin parts at it. This in and of itself is why I always recommend rebuilding what is there. Because now you have yourself in deep as far as trying to diagnose it. Do you even know what it is supposed to have on it?

No. It did not have the pins when we took it apart, and I just pulled off the rears to see and they are the same as the fronts, no pin but the Shoe goes into the WC, so it looks right. And again, before I put them on I compared the new ones to the old ones (shoes and WC's) and they were all the same, so if its the wrong size now it was the wrong size when we got it. Which is quite possible since when we got it, it had a ford radiator and a wrong fuel filler neck, so I'm not sure what else the PO rigged to work.

When you had a good brake pedal the first time....before the wheel cylinder blew.....when it blew what happened to the brake pedal? Did it go completely to the floor quickly?

It didnt necissairly "Blow", the car started pulling to the right since the left front wasnt braking and thats what got me to check it out and is when I noticed the leak then when I took the brake shoes off the Right side (got fluid on the left shoes so replaced all the front pads) and once the spring pressure was off of that WC fluid started dripping out the boot, so I replaced that one too. So no, it didnt go straight to the floor, it actually still stopped fairly well just pulled really hard to the right.

Took the car out to the local friday car show and it stopped great the whole time so Im 99% sure everythings back to normal. Probably gonna replace the rear brake assembly's soon just because it seems like a good idea.

Ill give you a series of Brake related events just to make sure I answered the question. Car runs and stops fine, front left rubber hose blew a few months ago and lost all pressure, fixed that and everything was back to normal,Then last week I started losing brake pressure while applying brakes (the car would slow down and the pedal would keep sinking till it was on the floor) and having to pump brakes Diagnosed as bad MC, replaced that and everything was back to normal for about 3 days untill the left WC started leaking and the car started pulling to the right but kept pressure (as I stated before), replaced left and right WC and shoes on front wheels, and thats when I came on here since I couldnt get the brakes working correctly, Im pretty sure what solved it was slamming the brakes really hard then tightening the adjusters all the way then backing off and thats where im at now (after slamming the brakes the left side adjuster took alot of turns to get all the way tight when the left took only about 1/4 as much). I went through about 3 bottles of brake fluid from the start of the story to the end.