Will it ever stop?? Okay NOW it's pulling to one side...

[Guest bastaad525]

in my ongoing saga of brake problems here... okay... a couple days ago I was driving the Z pretty hard, and for the first time since replacing my calipers (just stock rebuilt units) I notice the car pulls slightly to the right when I brake moderate-to-hard and steady.

 

I had mentioned this before... as part of the larger problem of my brakes going soft from hard use (but not abusive race track hard use, just one hard stop would get the pedal mushy), someone had suggested that this might be because one caliper wasn't working so the other was getting overworked and overheating. But before, the pedal would just jerk slightly to the right when I first jabbed the pedal, but if I applied steady pressure and held them down and took my hands off the wheel the car would track straight whether I was braking slightly or very hard or anywhere in between.

 

But now, as long as I hold the brakes, with my hands off the wheel, the car will pull to the right until I let off. It's only a slight pull, but it's enough to really irritate me plus it scares me because god forbid I have to emergency brake and my car pulls like that and gets me killed....

 

odd thing was, the first time I noticed it, I kept speeding up then braking pretty hard, and after a few hard stops, it went away and the car tracked straight no matter how hard or soft I stepped on the pedal. The next day though, it was pulling to the right again, I tried a few hard stops to see if it would go away again and this time it wouldn't.

 

Now, I had just checked the calipers a few weeks ago to be sure that both pistons were moving on each caliper and they all appeared to be moving fine (on the suggestion of the same person mentioned above). Not sure if that's changed or not.

 

But for a second, lets assume I have another look and all four pistons are still moving properly, what else could cause the car to pull to the right when braking? Tim240z had mentioned the pedal jerking briefly could be related to my old worn out bushings. Could worn out bushings also cause a constant steady pull to the right under braking?

 

or, lets say I check them and indeed one of the pistons seems to be stuck... being that these are rebuilt calipers, does that mean that one of them is bad and needs to be replaced again? Or is this something that I can fix? I've had them in for I think two months now... I don't think the shop I bought them from is gonna take them back.

 

Also, stupid question here... if the car is pulling to the right, than that would mean the right caliper is the one that's working properly and the left would be defective, correct?

 

These brake problems REALLY starting to piss me off... the car seeing a lot of time just parked lately because I'm just getting sick of dealing with it....

[Mike kZ]

Also' date=' stupid question here... if the car is pulling to the right, than that would mean the right caliper is the one that's working properly and the left would be defective, correct?

.[/quote']

 

Correct...maybe there is something blocking the flow from the master, through the distribution block, to the caliper. You could try disconnecting the master line, and caliper line, and blow compressed air, only if it isn't a caliper problem.

[Pop N Wood]

If you know you have worn out bushings, why not fix those first and then trouble shoot your brakes?

[JMortensen]

If the bushings are really bad troubleshooting the calipers again is wasted effort. Just fix the TC bushings then try again. Get a G Machine setup and use your old rubber bushing in the back.

[Tim240z]

YEAH>>>>>change your bushings already!! Dang....how long have you know they were bad? <<<(rhetorical).

(Give me a call)

[Guest bastaad525]

okay that's what I thought you guys might say.... so kinda it's kinda useless to keep trying to troubleshoot the brakes when in fact the brakes may not be the cause of the problem. So bad bushings CAN cause the car to pull to one side constantly under braking?

 

I still sorta have this feeling it's the brakes though, if only because of the on again/off again nature of the problem, and because my brakes do still seem like they want to go all mushy if I brake hard a couple times and heat them up... I think it was jmortensen who pointed out that I really should NOT be able to boil the fluid from just a few hard stops on the street, so that kinda suggests one caliper possibly working too hard to compensate for the other.

 

So still, I will make it a point when I get some free time to pull off the front driver side tire and see if both pistons are still moving freely. If there's any doubt I'm just gonna buy another one.

[HeatRaveR]

OMG, I had virtually the same problem! One day I was on the freeway just going straight, when I hear a clunk, like something metallic bouncing off the underside of my car. Everything seemed fine until I stepped on the brakes, then the car pulled to one side! It turned out that one of the tension rods on my '82 had somehow snapped! (dunno if the urethane bushings killed it) The metallic thunk was the big tension rod washer bouncing off my undercarriage. So the problem in my case wasn't the brakes, but just that rod.