middle_road

Hi All,

- reworking a '73 for the kid.
- Car sat idle for a few years.

Have replaced the Master Cyl., Front Calipers, Rotors turned.
Fenco rebuilt parts from Auto Zone.

Spongy/soft pedal. have bled them until the cows come home. Rears in good condition.

Limited stopping power. Rear brakes lock up hard, from 30mph & swerves to the left. long stopping distance.
Speeding up in reverse and hitting them hard - stays straight but doesn't stop soon enough no - lockups.

Have checked for leaks. Only item left to change are the hoses
on the front Discs. Haven't notice and bulges or dry rot
on them though.

What am I missing?

TIA,
_mr

atec77

sounds like you either have a stuck proportioning valve of the hoses are blowing up.

middle_road

no bulges on the hoses so I'm leaning towards the
proportioning valve.
However Ford Parts (here in TN) says it discontinued.

Where do I find one? All I'm turning up in searches is
manual styles.

thanks,
_mr

middle_road

per chance - would anyone have a schmatic for the plumbing of the valve?

middle_road

i surrender! i surrender!
can't even find the part on Ford's Motorcraft site.

ugggggh!

Did find this a bit after I posted this.
http://d524531.u35.acomhosting.com/a...e_valves.shtml

atec77

might be time to go look in a wrecking yard with it in your hot little hand... or pull it and try power flushing it

middle_road

Thanks Atec, Found this just before I read your reply.
http://d524531.u35.acomhosting.com/a...e_valves.shtml

I wish for the boneyards of my youth where they would help
you with old cars/parts. (Of course this car was new then.)
I went to two today and they just snickered.
In one of them I saw an old Maverick and what I think was a Torino out back. *sigh*

jas24zzk

G'day,
being a 73, It has dual circuit brakes. If you look in the master cylinder, it probably has a partition in the reservoir, (Front and rear brakes) hence the reason you cannot find a proportioning valve.

From the sound of it, you know what your doing in the bleed.
I would be looking at two things... Rear brake adjustment and the front calipers.
If you adjust the rears up too tight, then they will come on too aggressivley too quickly.

the front calipers could be seized.

Cheers
Jas

middle_road

the valve is on the fender wall, covered in undercoating.
Trying to trace the lines to make sure they're connected
right.

I've tried adjusting the rears two ways,
first was just enough to get the drum over the shoes
and then backing up a lot, the second was adjusting
them tighter with the drums on in the air.

The fronts are remanf. and just put on - they seem to
be functioning ok - with the wheels in the air and
the brakes depressed can move the tires by hand,
yet when on the ground a brake torque doesn't hold.

*finally get the puppy running and now can't stop it*

middle_road

Latest: went back to AutoZone to double check that the Master Cyl was the correct model.
They pulled on off the shelf and it's 50% larger than the one
we've been messing with!
Although the one we've been messing with was the same size as the one that came off of it.
I wonder if it was replaced incorrectly sometime in the past.
Gonna try this big a** wagner tomorrow...