Poor Brakes on my '64

[miller]

Might not be much help, though I went through alot of crap on my 64 Ply brakes. (It wound up so simple, I could not believe it.)

I admit, on mine, I already knew I wanted to convert my brakes to manual disc/drum. Just had to get the correct parts and pieces, to make the system right. I screwed up, trying a 'rebuilt' MC, that was assembled wrong, and had trash in it.
Had replaced every brake line/part, except the rear axle 'Y' fitting. New brake hoses all around.
Either from the MC, or otherwise, and several attempts to bleed all the brakes, could not get good fluid to the rear brakes. Stopped! Stripped most of the parts, and re-checked everything.

Then, I 'finally' found it. A piece of trash in the 'Y' fitting, a little out of the new hose, was blocking my system. Put a new MC on, cleaned the system, and away we go.

64 drum brakes were already known to be on the poor side anyway. Good luck on it!

 

[Dave145]

Miller, I will check that first. I have also replaced every line and hose on the car. I don't remember what the hose looked like that feeds the rear brakes. I thought it had the brass Y fitting attached to the hose permanently so that it got replaced when the hose did, but if it's its own piece then it may be a suspect.

Your problem sounds exactly like mine. Poor flow to the rear wheels.

Also yes, at some point I hope to put front discs on the car to make it stop even better

 

[fullmetaljacket]

Miller, I will check that first. I have also replaced every line and hose on the car. I don't remember what the hose looked like that feeds the rear brakes. I thought it had the brass Y fitting attached to the hose permanently so that it got replaced when the hose did, but if it's its own piece then it may be a suspect.

Your problem sounds exactly like mine. Poor flow to the rear wheels.

Also yes, at some point I hope to put front discs on the car to make it stop even better

Opinions may vary, but for years my 4 way drums have served me well till recently where I came upon a similar problem.
Fixing it now, but I've street driven and raced at the track with drums and (mine) would put you through the windshield if you applied 'em too hard on the street. On the track under more obvious speeds, I would apply sparingly and use the last turn off as to keep 'em cool and avoiding fade.

 

[oldbee]

I love discs,but a good 4-drum will stay on mine until I die. The new setups are great, but why stray if they work? Still think you have a pressure problem somewhere.

 

[miller]

I thought it had the brass Y fitting attached to the hose permanently so that it got replaced when the hose did, but if it's its own piece then it may be a suspect.

One brake hose goes to both rears, and the 'Y' block will separate.
Two things came to mine, first, bought a new rear hose. Simple, right? Not if that new hose already had trash in it. Be SURE it's clean inside. Yeah, I had completely cleaned my 'Y' block, when I re-did the brakes.
My conversion was straight up, old school. A little research, checking part numbers, I looked up one of the first manual disc/drum set-ups Ma offered. If I recall right, think it was a 67 Coronet, with 'police type' (bigger) brakes.

But, all in all, I screwed up! I have rebuilt many Mopar MCs...fairly simple. So, I went a little cheaper, and got a 're-built' unit. After the fact, totally through who re-built the damn thing, it was a dirty piece of junk, from the word go. I paid the price. Besides some monkey slapping it together wrong...it still had sand-blasting material it it, of course, all well hidden.

NEVER assume ANYthing!!. It's good, or it's not. Start at one end, go to the other, and be done with it.

Yeah, in it's day, 10" drums all around worked fine...or good enough. Takes alot of maintaining, to keep it all in good, working order.

 

[Ron H]

The Y fitting sure makes sense for restricted flow to the rears if that hadn't been checked out...if it'still restricted gunk could have progressed into the lines or cylinders needing cleaning.

 

[19polara64]

I would remove the lines after the rear block to see how the fluid comes out and then remove the line before to see if there’s any difference. I did the same thing on my 64 but with discs. Stops fine. Also like Mike said use a piece of vacuum line or fuel line to put in that notch on your rod.

 

[khryslerkid]

Yep, thats exactly what my rod looks like, minus the spring and cup! It does not have an O ring on it.

If you don't have the o-ring on the rod you're depending on the spring in the mc's piston to return things. In some cases that's enough but make sure the piston is returning to the c-clip that holds it in the mc. Some have the external coil spring to help with the return of the piston. If the piston doesn't return all the way back it will cause problems when you apply the brake each time.

 

[Centerline]

Personally I think this is your problem.

If I was you I would bypass this with an elbow to the rear and a "Y" to the front and see if that makes a difference. I've never been a fan of these "distribution" blocks. Shouldn't be too much trouble to see if this is whats causing your flow issues to the rear.

I run a disk/drum setup on my '64 Polara and use an aftermarket adjustable proportioning valve for the rear drums. Never had a problem.

 

[Cranky]

To recap the job some, you've never driven this car when it had good brakes but everything in the brake system has been replaced so far?

 

[khryslerkid]

Personally I think this is your problem.

View attachment 894012

If I was you I would bypass this with an elbow to the rear and a "Y" to the front and see if that makes a difference. I've never been a fan of these "distribution" blocks. Shouldn't be too much trouble to see if this is whats causing your flow issues to the rear.

I run a disk/drum setup on my '64 Polara and use an aftermarket adjustable proportioning valve for the rear drums. Never had a problem.

View attachment 894019

Hey Centerline, the first picture is my car and not the OP's. That's just a block with no valves in it. It works great and looks clean.

 

[Centerline]

Hey Centerline, the first picture is my car and not the OP's. That's just a block with no valves in it. It works great and looks clean.

My bad..... ;-(

 

[Dave145]

Cranky, yes you are correct. I've put close to 10,000 miles on this car over the last three years and it's always had crappy brakes. I rebuilt them the day after I got it home because the MC was leaking pretty bad down the firewall and it had a bown line in the rear.

 

[Joe Barnes]

Have you changed the flexible lines they my be swelling, also smaller brake lines my help