I have completely rebuilt the brakes on my 1956 and adjusted them according to the manual. I also believe I bled them correctly too however when you brake hard the truck pulls hard to the left. How do I tell if it's coming from the front or back brakes and how do I know if I need to readjust the shoes or rebleed the brakes. The pedal isn't "soft" and doesn't seem to "pump up". I have readjusted them three times and still have the same problem-I'm getting kind of frustrated.

 

I feel your pain. I just went through the same thing on my 65 Falcon. I had completely went through the brakes front and rear including new wheel cylinders. Within a couple of weeks the fronts were pulling again anad felt "grabby" I figured that one of the new wheel cylinders started leaking so I pulled it all apart only to find that I had one of the springs (the lower one by the self adjusters) in the wrong place....oops

When the truck pulls hard to the left does it try and drag the steering wheel around or is it just more of a whole truck kind of pull. (if it jerks the wheel around its in the front)

Typically I'll adjust the brakes until I can just hear a slight bit of drag between the shoes and the drum. It helps to apply the brakes a time or two to get the whole assy centered on the backing plate.

Bobby

 

It doesn't feel like it's really pulling the wheel but the faster I'm going when I apply the brakes the more the wheel does seem to pull. What seems ironic is that the left front wheel seems to spin with less drag when it's up on stands and turned by hand.

 

Maybe its the rear. Have you tried just using the emergency brake while going down the road? Sometimes you can differentiate between the front and the back that way.

Were any of the wheel cylinders leaking? What about the adjustments on the bearings? It might be worth pulling apart again just to make sure all the hardware is in the right place or that the primary and secondary shoes are in the right place. If you're like me, its easy to get things put together wrong....lol

Bobby

 

Great idea to use just the emergency brake-I should have thought of that. What I'm really trying to avoid is taking the whole set-up apart again but it kind of smells like that's what I'm going to have to do. What are you doing this weekend?
Chris

 

I just went thru this on my 56 for weeks, very frustrating... I ended up with two problems; leaky (and worn out) cylinder on the front right, caused the shoes to be so soaked that it pulled left. Second, bad seals on the rear caused oil soaked rear..same issue. Even after I changed the cylinder, it pulled..the shoes needed to be replaced though they looked OK.

 

When I rebuilt the brakes I used all new cylinders and shoes which doesn't mean they aren't bad but I kind of hope that they aren't. I also cleaned and derusted all the springs and levers so they should be ok too. I guess taking them apart and inspecting them is the way to go.

 

How are the drums themselves? were they pretty round? did you have them turned?

From the sounds of it, everything is new and clean so it shouldn't be grease or oil causing the pull. Hopefully its something simple like a spring in the wrong place. See if you can find a diagram of the brake assy so you can verify all the locations.

Forgive me if this is a stupid question. Did you get the right combination of primary and secondary shoes on each side of the truck? One shoe should be longer than the other one? If perchance you put both secondaries on one side and both primaries on the other then it migth cause a pull.

I've done thousands of brake shoes in my life and yet I still managed to get the springs on wrong in my Falcon......lol...sometimes its not easy being me

Bobby

 

Double post..sorry