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I need some wisdom from the board. I have completely replaced the brakes on my 66 including the hard lines, the soft lines, wheel cylingers, shoes, master cylinder and all. The only part that was reused was the brake booster. Everthing went together well and seemed to work fine at first but I have run into a strange situation. After about an hour of driving the brakes seem to tighten up to the point of over heating. At first I thought it was due to the parking brake not releasing properly, but I don't think that is the case since the front wheels are impacted as well. After the lockup occurs I can jack the front wheels off the ground and both are nearly impossible to rotate by hand. I am starting to wonder if the adjusters could be installed incorretly so that going forward is tightening the brakes rather than reversing. could the adjusters be reversed on the left and right sides of the truck? Any ideas?
Brakes are too tight, the friction make swelling and tightening as they go. Either that or a pedal rod is too long. I had the same issue when I installed my brake upgrade, the disc pads up front would get tight in a hurry and stop the truck. I backed off on the rod coming out to the mc and corrected the issue.
Sorry. Have nothing to add, other than am planning on finishing up a complete brake job myself this week, so this interests me. It is possible to install the self adjusters improperly, whether that would result in this I dunno.
After they cool down are you then able to rotate the front wheels by hand again? Adjusters would adjust the brakes tight and not let back off again, where as thermal expansion could cause a problem once the brakes get hot and disappear once they cool off.
If the shoes drag too much they could get hot. You might need to back off slightly on the adjusters so they don't drag quite as much. Or as John said possibly the master rod might need an adjustment. Other ideas?
Between the booster and MC is an adjustment. Kind of a goofy looking acorn type nut. Turn it in towards the MC just a couple of turns and test drive. Usually just a little adjustment will solve this.
Maybe you installed the self-adjusters so that when you stop they are tightening the brakes by rotating the adjuster. They are supposed to work when you back-up and stop, but I suppose you could install them on the wrong side. Left adjusters on the right and right adjusters on the left with the cables in front shoe rather than on rear shoe.
Thanks to all for your responses. Just came in from working on the brakes and the verdict is the push rod to the master cylinder was too long. Once I shortened it up a couple of turns the problem went away. It gives the pedal a little more of a spongy feel, but it still able to stop ok and drove about an hour with no sign of overheating. Thanks to all for your replys.
