I have a 1991 Astro Van and it pulls left when I apply the brakes. I changed all 4 ball joints and the left flex line. Both calliper were changed last year and when the van is lifted in the air the wheels spin freely any suggestion why it would pull to the left.
If it pulls to the left then you would look for a brake binding or adjusted too aggressively on the left. I'm a bit concerned though. For you to ask this question, it is apparent that you don't know a lot about adjusting brakes. No big deal there, but it does cause me to wonder if you are adjusting them properly.
You want to adjust the shoes on the drum brakes up until you just hear the shoe scraping a bit as you rotate the wheel. Inspect the shoes and make certain that you have adequate shoe left on the base plate and make sure the mechanisms work freely. "Freely" is a misleading term when applied to spring loaded drum brakes... To be sure, since drum brakes can create scraping sounds that are not really the shoe contacting the drum, take them up a bit more and be certain that you really have the shoe at the drum. Take it up to the point where you really can't turn that wheel, or it is very obvious that it's turning harder since you are contacting the shoe. Then back it off until the shoe just barely contacts the drum partially as you rotate the wheel. Do the same thing on both sides.
Hey Barney, just my way of agreeing with you with 100%. I've seen his problem so many times--and I've also seen many times where they replaced the wrong hose. Sorry that I was not clear. Please forgive my mistake; I meant nothing derogatory toward anyone. sam
I don't know if you are swapping the complete caliper or not (loaded caliper), but if the existing caliper is in reasonably decent shape i.e. caliper bolts are free of rust, slide easy, not cross threaded and the boots are in good shape... you might just wish to pop out the caliper piston, clean out the bore and install new seals and boot.
Look for the thread in this forum marked Brake Caliper help.. There is a good procedure which was checked and verified by Ian showing how to replace the caliper piston seals and boot. HLS offered additional advice. Good advice from two knowledgeable experts !!
Cost of a new Caliper is about 100.00 USD. cost of the Caliper boot and seal kit is about 5 bucks. A complete Caliper rebuild kit is about 35.00.
The point... rebuilding a caliper is EASY. I wish I had learned how to do it years ago....would have saved myself a lot of $$$ on purchasing new calipers and also done a more professional DIY brake job.
Also...many years ago, my left (drivers) brake was binding...it just happened to be an internally restricted brake hose. outside looked great but inside was brokened. This happened after a brake job (even though caliper was well hung during job).
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