Replacing my Brakes Options

[purple]

This weekend was step one of two of replacing the brakes on my '76. The previous owner upon selling to me told me that he had rebuilt the front calipers and the brake fluid looked very nice and fresh in the master cylinder. Looks like a nice fresh tank of ATE super blue..... I will find out later that what's in that tank doesnt look like what's in the brake lines....

I started this project because when turning the wheels in the rear to set timing, I can hear the left rear brake dragging, and loudly. I feared it was a bearing, but it wasnt. The brake was dragging. I lift the car and put it on 4 jackstands, the evil kind (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) I need some proper pin-thru stands. I have all 4 tires under the car in case the car decides it wants to smoosh me.

I'm using 4 new rebuilt calipers from Eric Shea. With these calipers are 4 new rotors, new front bearings, new seals, 4 new softlines, all new pads. A total of $1038 in parts from Eric.

From the pic...the parts are gorgeous!

[John]

I'm really not sure what is happening with your brake issue.

You need to go back and bleed your brakes some more. Do as they suggest and check to make sure your venting clearance is set for your rear calipers.

When sitting in your garage, ready to bleed the brakes, can you get any firmness out of your brake pedal?

On my street car that I had apart a couple years ago, I went through 2 quarts of brake fluid before I started getting a decent pedal. I had all 4 calipers off and the system went dry. I just simply could not get all the air out. I think in my case, I had air trapped inside both the master cylinder AND my proportioning valve.

When bleeding brakes with the buddy system, have your buddy pump the brake pedal slowly but firmly and hold pressure on the pedal. While they are holding pressure, open the bleeder (on top) and then close the bleeder prior to the pedal being released.

The pedal should have some firmness while holding pressure after pumping the pedal.

I prefer pressure bleeding mine, but when the master cylinder has run dry, I will use the pressure bleeder and crack open one bleeder at a time and slowly depress the brake pedal and release it while still pressure bleeding. That helps force any trapped air out of the master cylinder.

Make sure you have a firm brake pedal prior to driving your car again. There is a reason your pedal goes to the floor. It won't get better by itself.

I am confident that the solution can be found.

As to your carbs, that is another topic.

just my $0.02