The New, Newer Project: Part Tres...

[njsteve]

Had to actually work on the white car the other day. It was having a weird brake pedal - when you pressed the pedal it would initially be hard and then creep down to a certain point, about 2/3 of the way to the floor and then become solid again. I bled the system a couple times but it still persisted. No leaks anywhere. The back brakes were also running very hot. I was thinking maybe it was the combination valve internally leaking, or the original master cylinder that I had sleeved, internally leaking. I even swapped to a known, good master cylinder but the same issue was there.

I told my mechanic buddy Al and he said it was the rear wheel cylinders. Of course he was right. Turned out that they were sticking in the engaged position, thereby dragging on the drums. Since who knows how long it has been this way and how hot those springs got, for safety sake, I replaced all the return springs, along with a new set of shoes. (I photographed, labeled and packaged all the original parts for posterity) and installed the new cylinders, and shoes. With the help of my son, we re-bled the system and now it works fine. Pedal is firm and doesn't budge.