I have a 70 Buick GS but also a 65 Pontiac Catalina and it is on that car that I have put a new brake booster, master cylinder, wheel cylinders, and hoses. I checked my fluid on each wheel and have no bubbles and no leaks. The problem is that my right front brake locks when I press on the brake. I have only driven the car in and out of my garage (about 30 ft) at 1-2 mph, and my tire screeches when I brake. I am wondering if it could be the adjusting screw (I did not know how many times to turn it) or it may be I got some brake fluid on the brake pad (I did the job a few months ago). Anybody have any ideas for me? I will put this on the pontiac site as well, but I have found this site to be more active and more helpful so that's why it's here. Rick
Here's my thoughts until you can get a good answer from someone more knowledgeable; If you have new brake shoes and freshly turned drums, surface rust has probably formed on the drums causing it to grab. It could also be spilled fluid or a greasy hand print on the shoe. Driving the car and using the brakes enough to get the rust cleaned off and a "glaze" worked into the shoes and newly turned surface of the drum will help. As far as adjusting the front brakes, that's pretty much based on driver preference. I like nice tight brakes. I usually adjust the drum until I can hear the drum rubbing on the shoe while I spin it by hand. I like for the drum to not spin more than one revolution when I spin it with the tire mounted. Then drive it, get the new stuff seated in good and readjust if needed.
Not familiar with the Poncho brakes, but a 65 probably has a self adjusting brake lever which is supposed to "tighten" up the adjustment automatically. I would manually adjust each brake by turning the adjuster until the wheel won't turn, then back off till you get a light EVEN scrapping sound from the shoes on all wheels. Drive the car around a bit to get everything to get everything settled in. This gives you a starting point to troubleshoot any further problems. You should have even front brake force to each shoe assuming there aren't any other problems that affect the shoe movement(springs binding, lever not engaging adjuster wheel, cyl/hose/line fluid restriction). Also, I assume none of the adjusting wheels were not binding or tight to turn. If you're still having problems, you're going to have to dig in deeper to find the problem, let us know. Gene:bglasses:
