Puttin' Our Money Where His Brakes AreQ.I have a 1937 Chevy coupe, and I am having problems with the brake system and I'm not sure what is causing it. The front is a Mustang II with a big brake kit (GM intermediate calipers); the rear is a disc brake Ford 9-inch from a '75 Lincoln Mark V. It has a 7-inch power booster/ MC combo mounted under the floor, with a nonadjustable proportioning valve (from Godman's). It has residual valves in both the front and rear lines. The brakes work fine-the car will stop on a dime-but they do not release unless I physically pull up on the brake pedal. I've tried adding a spring to the pedal assembly, but I have not been able to find one that solves the problem (i.e., either too soft, which doesn't help, or too hard, which makes the pedal hard to push).
I'm not really sure where I need to go with this; I just know it makes the car a pain to drive.
Any help you could give would be appreciated.
Neil Pate
Via the Internet
A.That doesn't sound like a fun situation, plus it could be dangerous. There are a variety of things that could be wrong; the fault could be in the pedal assembly, master cylinder, or the power booster. So, the first thing to do is isolate each one. Start with the simple stuff first. Remove the pushrod from the pedal and make sure the pedal swings freely and doesn't bind. Then reassemble the pushrod to the booster. There should be a slight amount of play between the end of the pushrod and the booster to keep it from trying to apply the brakes on its own. If the rod adjustment is OK, disconnect the vacuum line to the booster, and step on the brakes and see if they release in an area where there's nothing to run in to (in fact you can probably do this standing still in the driveway). If they do, the problem is in the booster and it should be replaced. Finally, if none of that seems to fix it, pull the master cylinder and make sure the pistons aren't hanging up.
We're putting our money on the booster being at fault, but let us know what you find.
R.I just wanted to say thanks. I checked out the things you suggested and it turned out to be that I did not have any play in the pedal because I overtightened the bolt. I'm just glad it was something simple.Neil Pate
Caster ConundrumQ.I'm at my wit's end with a front suspension problem. After visiting a number of street rod builders in my area, I picked a fairly new guy. His shop was beautiful and spotless, and he seemed knowledgeable enough, but he was out of business and long gone by the time I got the car together and discovered I had a problem.
My problem is this: Although the chassis looks great, is detailed to the max, and the welds are all beautiful, there isn't enough adjustment to set the caster correctly with the way the front suspension was installed. When the upper A-frames are adjusted to move the top of the spindle to the rear to increase caster, there is interference between them and the tops of the coilovers. The guys at the frontend shop got it as close as they could, but they say it still needs a little bit more caster to go down the road like it should. The car does in fact wander going down the road, and it takes concentration to make it go straight.
I've taken the car to a number of other chassis builders and the suggestions range from selling the car to someone and starting over to paying to have this suspension system taken out, and then paying to have it put back in. I love the car and don't want to sell it, plus I've been burnt on bad deals myself and I can't pass this problem off to someone else. However, I can't afford to start the frontend installation from scratch either. I need some sort of solution. In all fairness, the original installation was nicely done (even though it can't be properly aligned), and the car actually rides great-it just doesn't want to go in a straight line.