Front brake pulling right

[Flyingthere]

Emo and I rebuild the calipers on my '78 and they were great however they are now beginning to pull hard to the right. I did not replace the brake hoses and am wondering if I have a hose that is not holding the pressure and not pushing the brake pads. Any thoughts on where I should look first?
When we did the rebuild we replaced the master cylinder, rebuild the calipers, replaced pads and we also replaced the compensator.

[mbouse]

could be several things.
1. old brake line is collapsing which won't allow the fluid to release once the brake pedal is released
2. brake caliper is not free to float in the caliper bracket
3. piston is sticking
4. pads are sticking in the caliper bracket

[Flyingthere]

Sorry I failed to mention they are only pulling when I apply the brake, it is as if the drivers side is not engaging at all and only the right side is. Do you think any of this would still apply?

[pope]

opps

[pauljdav]

Check the brake that is "sticking". Brake fluid is sticky on a rotor and it will grab if the caliper has a small leak and is leaking on the rotor. This is common if there is a leak in the caliper for the side with the leak to "grab".

Also check to see if the other side is "braking" by jacking up, applying brake and have a buddy try to spin the wheel.

Paul

[So Cal Mark]

check for air in the side that is not pulling. Did you clean and lubricate the caliper slides?

[Flyingthere]

check for air in the side that is not pulling. Did you clean and lubricate the caliper slides?

I have not had the opportunity to follow up on this yet but we did lude the pisttons and I have not found any leaks. Hopefuly I wil have someone available this weekend to push pedles for me.

[mdrburchette]

Like Mark says, make sure you lube the little metal slides that are held onto the caliper with cotter pins to ensure the caliper assembly doesn't bind.

[BartusCompater]

Could it be worn tires?

I know that when I got my Spider the tires were worn to hell and would like to pull to the right when the brake was applied. With new tires everything's straight as can be.

[TulsaSpider]

Yea mine pulls to the right as well, always has. I replaced the wheel bearings, brake hoses, cleaned and lubed everything etc... After I changed the hoses it got better, the braking improved quite a bit actually, but it's still there. The strange thing is when I really jump on the brakes as in testing them etc.. it's the left that locks up first.. I plan on changing out all my calipers etc..l. IF I can ever afford it!!!

[pope]

Since the front brakes do 70% of the braking, do the front calipers first and the backs when you can.

[Flyingthere]

Sorry for the delay in getting back, everything is lubed, outside "retaining groves"(now) included. The tires are new and should not be the issue. The hoses need to be replaced and I will bleed the brakes again. The only other thing I can think of after that is the front end bushings, tie rod and ball joint replacement, never know. Thanks for the input so far and I will keep you up to date on what I find.

[Flyingthere]

Problem fixed and the brakes feel better than ever! I never could find anything wrong so I just kind of watched everything to see if something changed. After replacing the crank case hose we had the car out and after backing it into the garage I noticed brake fluid on the floor. I pulled the wheel down and confirmed it was the left wheel brake line that was leaking, the brake reservoir was full so it had not been leaking much or long, yea an easy fix. I ordered new brake lines for the front and back. Emo and I pulled the old brake lines off the front and installed the new ones. The front left still did not feel right so we pulled the caliper and found a bent inner brake pad, a first for me! Both inner and outer pads were worn unevenly indicating that it was not been engaging much of the pad when it was working. So I ordered new pads. Tonight we cleaned up everything including the brake pad attachment points, to my surprise they were dirtier than I had expected. In addition we found that we had lost or that one of the anti-rattle clips was missing, fortunately Emo had extras at his house.
We put it all back together, bled the brakes and got the best feeling brake we have ever had on this car. We test drove it in the misty 46° South Texas weather. Remember anything below 70° is pretty much negative numbers for us here. But in the open cockpit of the Spider we were never cold, the joy of driving these cars, feeling the power, road and corners, sorry I digress, anyway the car stops strait and true, and the peddle is stronger than ever.
You guys hit the problem areas and it seems like I had almost every problem possible, again thanks for your help. I can’t wait for the weekend, the temp is expected to be in the 80s while Emo will be in Wisconsin in temperatures that are single digits if he is lucky.
Now I just need to get the rear hoses on and double check everything there.
Happy motoring!

[So Cal Mark]

congratulations! good investigative work

[pope]

Good work, but it looks like you tried to stop on that brake shield a few times. LOL