Hi all

I´ve been having these weird problems with my brakes for some time now.
After the car has been in rain ,I have no garage , when I use the brakes for the first time, left back wheel locks up suddenly and whips the tail to right. This happens once or twice and then the brakes feel normal again. Sometimes this happens also when I have washed my car
so I think it has something to do with brakes being wet.
the car has 3.23 rear, no posi and drum brakes. The brake shoes are in decent condition, not worn out.

the car passes the local inspection with no problems. the brakes work well in normal conditions and also if it starts to rain when I´m driving, but not when it´s been parked in the rain.

Has someone had the same problem?
Any ideas what to check / what could cause this?


I´m planning to swap in a ´89-92 rear with disc brakes "sometime soon"..

TIA

-make-


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1984 Z-28, TH700R4,
no mods

[This message has been edited by Make (edited July 13, 2001).]

 

i'd say you're right it's the water making them do it. might also be one side grabbing before the other. make sure both sides are adjusted the same, the hardwear is in good shape, the bushings in the calipers are free to move. if you know it's a problem you can ride the brake a little to build up heat and dry off the water.

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ICON Motorsports
1st & 3rd
MM Black Diamond 538 F&AM

 

It sounds like somthing is rusting. The piston could be stuck and when rust builds up on the rotor it locks the wheel up. That would be my guess. Take the caliper off and make sure everything fuctions normally.

 

Drum brakes are notorious for not working when wet. Ask anyone with an older car with drums on the front and they will tell you that driving through water puddles is suicide. What's most likely happening, and I could be wrong is that one brake is grabbing and the other is not. I don't know how water would get in there unless you have some serious ventilation in your quarter area. My front passenger side floor board floods though and my car is fairly rust free. Go figure. Anyway any kind of torque in the rear will send it right around under braking because the COG of the car moves forward under braking. On a side not that is why some front drives torque steer. As far as remedying your problem. I'm at a loss. The only other thing it might be is that your axle seals are going bad and that is causing the drum to not work right after it's sat for a while. You'd definately see this happen a lot more on wet roads than dry one's(obviously). I hope this helps

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'87 Bird 350 .060 over 700R4 + Lots more

 

I would pull off your drum and check the wheel cylinders for seapage..

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FloridaRacer.com

 

Mine was doing the exact same thing (until I snapped the axle the other week). Humid days seemed to be almost the same problem too. Turns out after having to dig up a whole new brake for the pass side (side that was causing the prob anyways), turned out the cause of the problem was the line on that side had air in it.

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• my Formula Homepage
• Collision P/Ns & Diagrams (Camaros only, until i get more edited)

The mind is like a parachute, it only works when its open

 

The first time drums are done, the inspection hole is punched out (where you adjust the parking brake); but most shops/people don't plug it back up, and that lets in water. See if those are open, and if so, buy a pair of plugs for it. They're like 3 bucks (little rubber plugs shaped like the inspection/adjustment hole).

 

I would go ahead and replace the wheel cylinder too. It is only $10 at autoparts store. I replaced both of mine and my rear brakes never worked so well.



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91 Camaro RS 5.0L Black Convertible 700R4
** Added so far **
*GM Wonderbar,Alston SFC's,spohn LCA's and Panhard rod
*Turbo City Inj Spacer
*Dual Snorkel Air Filter
*March Performance Pulleys
*GM 3.42 Gears with OEM Zexel POSI
*Edelbrock headers
*3" High Flow Cat
*3" Dynomax Exhaust
*Walbro 255 lph Fuel Pump
***Future 330hp Vortec Crate with LT4 hotcam and 454 TBI

 

Wish I'd have known that a while ago. Let's see, my car now does it, I had a 94 S-10 that did it, a 72 Nova, 80 Malibu, 90 1/2 ton, etc. They all had that hole punched out, and I just learned to deal with it.

Thanks. Guess what I'm buying tomorrow.
AJ