Brake Question

[knucklehead29]

Ok guys I am going to need your help with an issue I have been having. I have a 1953 Bel Air with power brakes. When I got the car the Power booster vacuum line was not connected. I made the connection wtih a check valve and it seemed to help a little. My main issue is that it VERY hard to stop the car. You literally have to STAND on the brakes to get it to stop. The brake pedal itself is a little spongy at first, but then after a few pumps it is pretty much rock hard. Also, my brake lights aren't working, which run off a little pressure sensor on the back of the reservoir. This tells me that I am either not getting much pressure from the hydraulics (not enough to trigger the sensor), or the sensor is bad. I changed the sensor and still no brakes. Now I pulled the drums off the front and the back and everything looks pretty good. I pumped the brakes and saw the wheel cylinders extend and push the pads out (not much travel is that normal?). When I pulled the drums the pads were not touching the drums that much. In other words there was some free spin with little resistance.

My question is, could this all be due to some air in my brake lines? Or is this more of a problem of just having to adjust the brake shoes out a bit further? Is it possible that I am not getting any assist from my brake boost and simply using mechanical force to apply the hydraulic pressure? Thanks in advance guys.

 

[Rev Tex Devlle]

i oblem with my 52 pontiac, it would stop but the peadl was hard and i had to stand on the pedal,, after i blew a wheel cylinder istarted checking, and what was going on was this,, one side of the wheel cylinder was stuck and was only working half the brakes in the drum!! so i am currently redoing all my barkes lines and everything!

 

[42chevy]

Is this the factory setup? If it is not I had a similar issue with my '42 Chevy that I added '74 Nova brakes to, and it was the master cylinder pushrod. It was too short I think and I found an adjustable one at the wrecking yard that fixed it.

 

[knucklehead29]

yes

As far as I can tell it's the factory setup. The more and more I think about it the more I am becoming certain the booster is not working. Pretty much I don't have power brakes with the assist.

 

[Sam_Fear]

As far as I can tell it's the factory setup. The more and more I think about it the more I am becoming certain the booster is not working. Pretty much I don't have power brakes with the assist.

That'd be my guess.

 

[knucklehead29]

That'd be my guess.

So I hooked a vac pump up to the vac assist line going to the booster and tried to pull a vacuum and no dice. Didn't hold a damn thing. The diaphragm must be shot...