more pulling brakes

[Jim100]

How is this possible? My 70 w-100 closed knuckle drum brake Dana 44 pulls alarmingly to the right if I brake hard. Its hang on or be over a lane or in the ditch. I jacked up the front and the left side opposite the pull feels like it has the correct bit of drag. The right side and the direction it will pull you to death the wheel spins free with no drag at all.
Thanks. jim

[powerwagon54]

sounds like the shoes are on backwards and the right side is way out of adjustment

[Hobcobble]

How old are the rubber hoses?
John

[Jim100]

Everything is new. All bled correctly. I will check for backward stuff but they worked ok for a while after new parts.
I'm just confused that it could pull that hard to the under adjusted side.

[dodgeboykim]

so when you say new , All Wheel cylinders,Hoses and any parts in the hydraulic portion have been replaced.

[Jim100]

Everything. Hoses, lines, cylinders,drums,shoes, master cylinder.

[Hobcobble]

Everything. Hoses, lines, cylinders,drums,shoes, master cylinder.

The big shoe is toward the back on both sides.... correct?
You might try turning your adjusters until there is a very slight
drag on each drum.... then turn both back a click or two.
John

[Jim100]

Thanks all. I will check when I get home to make sure the big secondary shoes are in the back of each side.
jim

[Jim100]

The actual brake material is the same length on both the front and back shoes. The front material is lower or further down hill on the front shoe.
jim

[Kaegi]

you may have a clogged brake line or maybe a bad set of brake shoes. I used to do 1000 brake jobs a year way back and bad shoes happened once and a while. another possibility is your drum on the side it pulls towards may have hard spots. it will look like fish eye in the drum surface. causes really bad pulling and usually cannot be machined out.

[Hobcobble]

The actual brake material is the same length on both the front and back shoes. The front material is lower or further down hill on the front shoe.
jim

Any shoes I've installed on these trucks had one [per wheel] with more surface
than the other and the long one was installed in the rear of the backing plate.
John

[marklein]

You check which shoes are on the other side? Maybe both long shoes on one side and both shorter shoes on the other. Shorter shoe on the front designed to apply the rear shoe for holding power. Just a thought.

[my5thmopar]

The actual brake material is the same length on both the front and back shoes. The front material is lower or further down hill on the front shoe.
jim

Any shoes I've installed on these trucks had one [per wheel] with more surface
than the other and the long one was installed in the rear of the backing plate.
John

Same here. BTW every drum brake I've pulled apart that was installed by someone else was wrong. Shoes, springs, adjusters all have a very specific method for installing. Let us know what you find or post a picture of both sides. Craig

[HEtkind]

I went through this LAST year on my 68 D100 Ulitline...It would pull HARD to the left when braked, and all shoes, wheel cylinders, hydraulics were good. What I finally found was a FRAYED self-adjustment cable on the right front, so while the left front and great contact all the way around, the right front only had a small amount of surface area contact, and not adjusting up. When I did the manual adjustment, I was adjusting up to the highest point on the new shoes.

And the back...I had fixed axle seals about a decade ago, and cleaned up the shoes, but didn't replace the shoes or do a complete clean on the hardware and backing plate. I suspect hauling an overload of either scrap metal or cord wood up and down Iron Mountain Pass one too many times got the back brakes HOT and the old grease melted and fouled the shoes.

Solution was ALL new hardware and self adjusting kits from Rock Auto. They were CHEAP last year so I got two complete sets of shoes, self-adjustors and hardware kits. Plus three cans of brake cleaner to get the backing plates spotless.

Best of luck.

Howard

[Jim100]

I removwd both drums for more looking. I noticed on the passenger side (the direction of the pulling) that the little lever that is supposed to work the star wheel was not touching it. I gave it a bend with a couple pliers so it catches the teeth.
That solved the problem but I cant grasp why. Brakes now work as they should.
Thanks for help all.jim