Bit of background here - my husband bought a '69 Camaro for me last year. We've taken it from stock, to nitroused, blew that one up and now put the blower I really wanted in it. (350 with a 671 blower).

It runs great! My husband is a mechanic and we also have several other street-rod guys helping with this car along with his '41 ******. One of them that helped build both cars along with his own '71 blown Camaro is a Chevy mechanic at a dealership here. So, we're not talking dummies here that normally get stumped.

My husband brought the car home the other night (temporarily living in friends garage while work on the *****'s was being done in our garage) and it drove just fine - about a 5 minute drive with curves. The car was fine. Put it up on jack stands to drain all the oil and then put fresh in the next morning. (not sure exactly why he was doing this but the only part that matters is that it was up on jackstands all night).

Got in the car the next am to go to the car show, stopped at top of short driveway (paved), stopped at stop sign (few feet away from driveway), coasted to and tried to stop at stoplight 500 yards from home - steering while jerked HARD left and locked front left tire, burning rubber smoke.

Turned around and went back to house after waving down the ****** and 71 camaro with mechanics inside. Over the last week - replaced brake lines, brakes, brake drums, master cylinder, front-end suspension, found small crack in frame now repaired. Currently at alignment shop that aligns most street-rods in our area - say the alignment probably won't fix the amount of pull that it still does when brakes are applied. It's not nearly as bad as it was before we replaced everything but it also never had one defining moment of when we replaced a part it got better. It's still not right.

Any ideas out there on where to turn next? We're stumped!

Tracy
e-mail privately if you like - jamakinmecrazy@comcast.net

 

Forgot to add - manual brakes here. Removed power brakes when we added the blower.

Tracy

 

You said you replaced brake hose, so I'm assuming the fronts were replaced. If not a bad hose can expand and the brake on that side doesn't work correctly. Also there is no mention of the brake cylinders; were they replaced, especially the right side which appears to not work?

Jody

 

Yes, talked to my husband. Both brake cylinders were replaced as well.

Tracy

 

make sure the brakes are adjusted and all the hardware componets are in proper working order..makes sure all lines are tight and no air in the lines

 

Is there any possibility that a jackstand was placed on the passenger side hard line and crushed it? Did the passenger side get good fluid movement when it was bled?

Jody

 

Brakes were adjusted properly and bled, I think at least 3 times now. Brake lines weren't crushed, he checked again last night with the car on a lift at the alignment shop and not one of the five mechanics there saw a problem.

It still caster steers while braking. Not nearly as bad as before but since it never did it at all before the incident it's driving us crazy! I'm going to test-drive it tonight as I haven't been in it since it locked up and I'm supposed to take it to a car show tomorrow.

My only fear is that since we didn't figure it out exactly it might come back as bad as it was. This time I'll probably be on the freeway or going down some hill. Yikes! My husband just jokes that I'll get use out of the roll-cage that way. Not funny!!

Tracy

 

Have they ever put a pressure gauge on the brake bleeder? That would be the next step and compare pressure side to side. They sell the gauges relatively inexpensively. If it's pulling hard to one side it appears it's doing all the work and I'd guess the passenger side would show a lot less pressure, unless there's something mechanically wrong with the shoes or related hardware.

Jody

 

Just talked to husband - no, they haven't pressure tested it yet. Said something about not sure where to get a fitting? Any ideas?

Visited your website - NICE!! Will be showing your cars to my husband tonight! My Camaro is in about phase 6 since we bought it. Gets tubbed and re-painted this winter. Needs that all desperately! Looks good from about 10 feet! Husband is into making things run and handle right and then worrying about the appearance. LOL! Not sure how to attach a photo or I would.

Tracy

 

Thanks Tracy! Here is one from Jegs with several adaptors. You'll want to make sure it will adapt to drum brakes though, that I'm not sure of.

Jegs brake pressure gauge

Jody

 

The only thing i can think of is the proportioning (sp?) valve. I read u went from power to manual, u may have to change or remove the valve. I would be interested to find out what the solution was, i have a 67 camaro with 4 wheel discs.I just removed the power boster and master cylinder in exchange for one of those vette 4 wheel disc masters and removed the valve all together. I wont be able to drive test until the end of august if iam lucky and your solution might help me if i have some brakes with a mind of there own too.

 

Well, I've driven it quite a bit now and it still caster steers while braking left but not very bad if you don't have to brake hard. Did have one idiot pedestrian cross the street in front of me while I was doing 35 and had to stop fast. Veered left but not bad enough that I couldn't counter-steer. Like he couldn't hear the blower screaming and see the car coming straight at him - idiot! Just stood there in the middle of the road waiting for me to get there and gave me a thumbs up.

The proportioning valve seems to be fine as well. The brakes were switched from power to manual when we switched it to a nitroused motor about 6 months ago. It was fine then and fine when we changed the motor again (blew up the one that had nitrous on it) and added the new motor and put a blower on it. It literally has never had this problem for the past year. Just decided to do it now for some reason. I think we're just going to deal with it for now. It's getting all torn down and gone through when we back-half and paint it this winter. He may change to disc brakes as well. That's his department. I just tell him what I want he makes it happen. Too bad that only works on the street rods!! LOL!

Thank you all for your advice. If you think of anything else to try let me know!

Tracy

 

It seems to be a fluid problem on the passenger side for it to grab that much more on the driver's side. My 68 was converted to 4 wheel discs by the previous owner and I have to say it stops awesome! I had to change out the power booster and master cylinder due to leaks, but it now works great. Either you have a large air bubble in your system on one side or restricted brake fluid flow.

 

What I was thinking Jeff which is why I wanted them to get pressure readings from each side. Would at least give an idea of what's going on there.

Jody