hard braking

now i have 4 wheel drums and its hard to push the pedal to the floor but it needs to go taht far to get good braking

im wondering if its usually that hard or am i looking at a problem?

is it a power brake car? if it isn't, the brake shoes may be wore down...

Pull the drums off...if the shoes are not worn down you can adjust them... While turning the drum adjust them until you feel a slight drag.

well the shoes are good they are adjusted right
how do i tell if its power brakes? does it have a booster for power brakes?

well the shoes are good they are adjusted right
how do i tell if its power brakes? does it have a booster for power brakes?

yeash...

If it isn't power brakes, there is no ugly metal donut behind the master cylinder.

Make sure you have enough brake fluid.

If you do have power brakes, make sure the vaccum line is hooked up and in good shape.

thanks for the help so far

no power brakes
checked other day when i checked the fluids and it was fine maybe air in lines? do i need to bleed or should it be hard to push since i dont have power brakes

The pedal will be harder to push than a car with power brakes. I get out of my nova and into my VW and usually go through the windshiled the first time I hit the brakes if I am not thinking.

The pedal should also come to a point where it will stop. It should not keep travel to the floor. Try bleeding them and see if that helps. Otherwise maybe the master cylinder is going bad, but I'm not sure what the symptoms of that would be.

The most common failure in a MC is going to be the seals. A lot of time when they go you will see it leaking brake fluid. If your pedal goes all the way to the floor that can be considered not a good sign.:bored:After 40 years or so it probably is time to replace it anyway.

There are a lot of repops on the market, some of them actually work. I would get one from a reliable parts house like NAPA...they aren't that expensive. I just went through that, and it took 3 tries before I got one that worked properly. It would have been a real pain if I had been using mail order instead of my local parts guy.

Just remember that non-boosted drum/drum brakes do take more pedal pressure and they don't work that well compared to disks. If you don't have the big bucks to do a disk conversion, just remember to allow a little more room to stop than you need in a newer disk/drum brake car. Your car ran fine with manual drums for a loooong time!:yes::yes:

Dave

The pedal will be harder to push than a car with power brakes. I get out of my nova and into my VW and usually go through the windshiled the first time I hit the brakes if I am not thinking.

The pedal should also come to a point where it will stop. It should not keep travel to the floor. Try bleeding them and see if that helps. Otherwise maybe the master cylinder is going bad, but I'm not sure what the symptoms of that would be.

What he said!

It just takes a whole lot more to stop the car without power brakes :yes:
As long as the pedal isn't dropping to the floor, sounds pretty normal to me.

well its not to floor just close if i put full weight on it

i think its fine then

but.... disk conversion could i get parts off a stock vehicle for just a fron tbrake conversion?

When I got my Bug, the brake pedal went almost all the way to the floor, I tightened up the brakes, and now the pedal doesn't go as far down. If the brake shoes are too loose, it takes more pedal to push the brake shoes out. Jack up the car, and spin the tire. You should be able to feel a little bit of drag on it.