Have replaced upper ball joints and installed new brake hoses and wheel cylinders on 1969.5 Maverick (24,000 miles original). Has remedied severe right side dip and SEVERE pull but still pulls noticably to right when braking even at low speed. Tie rod assy. and idler arm have no slop. Have not yet re-alligned front end. All of front end seems normal. Any ideas of problem cause? I feel this is more than an allignment problem. Must rectify before DMV inspection for registration.
Just some ideas to try. On a dirt surface, try to get a feel and a look see if a lockup would occur on the right wheel enought to slide and not the left side. Could suggest that the left side is the problem of not enough brake action for some mech. reason. Check that there is no pinched/ kinked metal lines. Look at the distribution block area for a line problem. Brake pulling on these cars seems to be very common to one degree or another. Some do some don't.
this might be a simple or even dumb answer but are the brake pads adjusted right? jack the car up and spin them.. thats if there drums... wasn't sure if you if you did or not.
There are a couple of other possibilities too. You might have a bad or loose front strut bushing. that would cause the lower control arm to move under braking and pull the car in one direction or the other. Check both sides. The other thing might be a bad rear spring eye bushing. Under braking it could deflect and cause the rear axle to "cock" to one side, steering the car.
Thanks for the suggestions. As K. Merring mentioned, I HAD noticed that the right wheel dug into the gravel when the brakes were applied. For laughs, I removed the brake shoes from both wheels and swapped them. The pulling now appeared on the left instead of right. I purchased new shoes and replaced the old ones. EVERYTHING CLEARED UP. Evidently, even though they looked like new, there was something foreign on the left shoes that made them slip. Gettin ready for the road dudes! Thanks.. Ed
a little bit of grease on the shoes can cause it to grab. I've not seen one slip unless there was a pressure/line problem.
i'm still having intermittent pulling to the left problems... and my leaf springs ARE really sagging. I'm going to replace them with 4 layer HD ones and then I'll see if the leaf bushings are the culprit. I really want to solve the problem, and not switch to Discs. Dont want to get beat by my car....lol. I also have the annoying front left squeek, as if a spring perch??? I dunno..
I think this is the oldest post I've seen dragged back up. 6 years old. Have you greased the front end?
Have I greased the front end.... of what? All new bushings, yeah... there is grease. We switched drums left to right, replaced everything in the brake assemblies. I am thinking that maybe the lower control arms are causing this?? It is the only thing I can think of.. that'll be a project...lol. THere is also a very odd metal on metal squeek in the driver side shock tower, SOMETIMES...and in the passenger side. It is not the shock(s). It seems that maybe the spring ?? It sounds like too pieces of metal fatiguing themselves...That squeek and the pulling to the left really bum me out . TOTALLY disrupts my serenity. I have spent over 9,000.00 this year on this car...... 4 shops have done the brakes. Paint & bodywork, engine rebuilt..etc..If only it would brake straight..and stop squeeking.. I friggin HOSED it down with "Corosion Block" spray. Anyone know anything about "Spring Perches" ...?
