Our 74 is having break issues. It stops but very slowly and if your going fast it pulsates when trying to stop and if you are stopped and have your foot on the brake, it will just slowly give and go down more. We were told it needed a master cylinder so we take it to Pepboys, they inform me that it needs 1400.00 worth of work! To start they say at minimum it needs front shoes & wheel cylinders, rear wheel cylinders and drums, bushings, master cylinder and the grand total for just that is $650 with labor. Any suggestions? Thanks!
I did a complete brake job on my '74 with new everything, except front drums for around $250. Brakes are not that hard of a job if you do one wheel at a time so you can look at the other brake assembly to see how to put it back together.
Plus if your pep boys is like ours, they will charge you for stuff and not put it on.. I had my sons brakes done there and it still acted funny so I took it to someone else and found out they didn't replace the pads or shoes at all still had the original brakes and the bill was 400 buck for all four corners...
I just put new pads on the front of mine and it cost me $15 for the pads. The pulsing action could be bad drums. If it has disc brakes, it could be warped rotors. The brake fade does sound like the master cylinder. Make sure you check everything for excessive wear and leaks.
the truth is these cars are over 30 years old. all the origanl rubber parts in the car is not in good shape. there are lots of rubber parts in brake system. i suspect that they wanted to put new brake hoses, master cylinder, 4 wheel cylinders or 2 wheel cylinders and two calipers, 4 drums or 2 drums and 2 wheel cylinders and new hardware kits all the way around. you can just replace the big problems in your brakes wich are the master cylinder and warped rotors or drums, but chances are you do need to replace almost every thing. its a pretty easy job as long as you under stand how to bench bleed a mastercylinder and bleed the brakes.
Leaky Wheel Cylinders I put ALL new brakes on my '72 Mav as I was working on it over the last two years. Finally got it on the road and the brakes pull to the right. Took the front drums off today and BOTH wheel cyl are leaking! The problem with a two year effort is you've had everything for a long time before you figure out which parts are bad. Since I knew I would be way past the warrantee period, and I really didn't want to know how much I'm putting into this project, I haven't saved receipts on most stuff. Can't recall where I bought the brake stuff but probably Advance or CarQuest. So, checked NAPA for new parts today. They have NAPA brand ULTRA SUPER SPECIAL cylinders for $12!! Hope they do better than whatever I got the first time. I'm taking my old ones with me to make sure they're the right parts and for the core charge. When is the last time you had a core charge on brake shoes??
The brake pedal fading can be caused by the master cylinder. This would be caused by an internal leak. You won't lose any brake fluid. If you are losing brake fluid, check for leakage at one of the wheels coming from a leaking wheel cylinder or leakage at a steel or rubber line.
