Rear brakes

[clusterbuster]

Every time I would come back from taking the 57 out for a spin ,when I would be parking it, the car would not coast good with the clutch in. I jacked the front up and the wheels would spin freely, but when raising the rear wheels off the floor, the wheels would barely turn by hand. Loosened the master cylinder from the booster and checked the booster push pin with a booster gauge, and it was good. Removed the front to rear line fitting from the proportioning valve, and the rear brakes were still applied. Loosened a bleeder port on one rear wheel and the wheel freed up and spun beautiful. I came to the conclusion that the rear brake hose had to be imploded or blocked up. Today I went out and removed the hose and wouldn't you know that it was totally blocked shut. I don't know how the rear drum brakes were applying at all. I tried running a fine wire through it and even blowing 120 lbs of air through it and nothing would go through. Looking at the hose it has hardened undercoat all over it, so I feel it is the original. Any who has an original rear hose better check it, because mine is shot. A new one will be here tomorrow.

[gasman826]

Ya...those hoses can act like a check valve.  Brake line pressure can easily exceed ten times the air pressure you were using to test.  Return line pressure may be no more than 5psi.  No more than hoses cost, you might want to order the front ones too.  I don't think you can argue that you haven't got your moneys worth out of the originals.  57+ year old rubber...pretty good life span.

[clusterbuster]

I did the front disk brake conversion a couple months ago, so the conversion used new front hoses. I painted and replaced all the steel lines as well. Didn't realize that little return pressure on those brakes. I'm sure glad to have found the problem, as the brakes on that car have driven me nuts. The first 7" booster I bought was defective and held pressure to the system after releasing the pedal. The booster plunger pin would not retract after releasing the pedal. I would loosen the master cylinder from the booster and the pin would force the master almost all the way off the booster. Luckily I found it just barely within the warranty period, and the company made it right.

[junior58]

Just done exactly the same repair on mine, replaced the rear brake hose. I found mine when the L/R wheel started smoking but because it was only one wheel at the time, I thought it was the wheel cylinder wg=hich hadn't been replaced that long ago. Simple fix when you find it.