Drove my truck for the first time!

[67ss&99ss]

I'm happy. This past friday, I drove my 69 CST/10 for the very first time! I have had it for about 9 years, so it definately felt great. I haven't worked on the truck much since I've had it until this year. I pulled the original motor out a while back, and put a crate 350 in its place, redone the entire brake system and I put a set of old tires I had off of previous truck on to this truck's steelies just to get it mobile. I'm surpised at how well it drove to be a manual steering, manual drum brake truck.

I do have some questions about the brakes though. My brake pedal has a lot of travel to it, and I'm not sure why. The truck stops, but not well in my opinion. The brake pedal is firm, but it goes all the way to the floor when I stop. Is this normal for a manual drum brake truck? I got in the brakes really hard to see what would happen and it locked the back tires up but not the front. The truck has a new master cylinder, which I bench bled, brake shoes, wheel cylinders, brake hoses all new hardware inside the drums but the adjusters themselves. I did disassemble the adjusters to clean them and I put white lithium grease on the threads and the end the short pin slips on. I adjusted the brakes until there was a little resistance on the drums as I turned them and before I pulled out of the driveway, I backed the truck up several times, and hit the brakes so that they would adjust out any further if needed. Is there something I'm overlooking?

I bled the wheel cylinders starting from the back right, then back left, then front right, then the front left. I'm not getting any air at any wheel cylinder that I am aware of.

[vasquezmrysvll]

thats cool butttt....

[mclairmo]

Check to make sure that there is no slop where the push rod goes into the master cylinder. There should be basically no gap so that the second you push on the brake pedal, the master cylinder piston starts to move. Also, old adjusters often have worn teeth on them and fail to self adjust anymore. Try new ones and grease them inside really well. Also, compare the old master cylinder piston bore with the new ones. A smaller piston bore will require more travel to move the same amount of fluid as a larger bore master cylinder. Also, make sure your rubber brake hoses are good and are not swelling or balooning under pressure. Also, make sure you put the correct adjusters back on the correct side. There is a left and right side.

[67ss&99ss]

[67ss&99ss]

Originally Posted by mclairmo

Check to make sure that there is no slop where the push rod goes into the master cylinder. There should be basically no gap so that the second you push on the brake pedal, the master cylinder piston starts to move. Also, old adjusters often have worn teeth on them and fail to self adjust anymore. Try new ones and grease them inside really well. Also, compare the old master cylinder piston bore with the new ones. A smaller piston bore will require more travel to move the same amount of fluid as a larger bore master cylinder. Also, make sure your rubber brake hoses are good and are not swelling or balooning under pressure. Also, make sure you put the correct adjusters back on the correct side. There is a left and right side.

Thanks for the info. I will check the push rod travel next. All of the brake hoses are new and when I was bleeding the brakes I kept my eye on them when my dad was pumping up the brakes. They didn't swell outwards any. I disassembled the brakes one side at a time, so the adjusters are in the correct postion.