Greeting's ,
Right up front I will admit that I know next to NOTHING about front drum brake's as Ive never owned a car with them !!

My problem is when I first drive the ute and brake for the first time it grabs and pulls heavely to the right. But after braking a few times it go's, but the pedal doesnt pulse and the warmer it get's the better it is.

When I first got the ute I thought the brakes where draging a bit so I read up and ajusted them up, no prblem , very easy when you get under there. But this didnt fix the main prob but did improve overall.

I havent had the rims or drum's off or anything yet as I have no idea what to look for, so Im happy to hear any idea's please.

Im used to it by now but Im a bit worried my wife might make a mess of my new play thing,

But I did notice that the Brake fluid was down a fair bit so I topped it up and havent had a look since.

Regards
Andrew (amshaw)
Aus

Hey Andrew,

Could be a couple of things. There are two reasons why the fluid level can drop 1. There is a leak 2. The shoes have worn. The way it is pulling sounds like you could have leaking wheel cylinder in the left drum which has contaminated the linings. You need to pull the drum off to check this. If both drums are dry inside check the linings to see how worn they are. If all checks out OK then try swapping the outer part of each drum over to identify if there is a prob with that like it's scored or beyond min diameter. Lettuce know what you find.

I can understand your frustation. My old Mini had drums all round. Every time you went to brake you had to pump them up (jump on the pedal twice) so your foot wouldnt just go to the floor.

First time I drove it and braked it pulled to the right something chronic. I nearly swearved into another lane on the highway it was that bad. The then owner said that it always did it, he also said he had taken it to the local mini expert but they just couldnt find what was wrong with it! Ah, well I got used to it.

Loving the discs on my ute. :)

Yeah, drum brakes are more frustrating than discs. Sometimes it's difficult to tell exactly what's wrong. Shops tend to replace or machine everything (new cylinders, new linings, machine the drums, etc), instead of finding the exact problem.

Usually, when it pulls to right, something is wrong with the front left brake. The left isn't braking as much as the right, so it pulls to the braking side.

Thanks Guy's,
I will pull the drums off tommrow and have a look for leaks & lineing wear etc. And while its up on stands I might reajust the left side so it grabs a little more or earler or what ever.

I would love to put Disk's on it but I just cant stretch to that now , maybe down the track a bit.

I will post again tommow night Aussie time and let you all know what I find. I have a feeling that this is going to cost me big.

Regards
Andrew Shaw
(amshaw)
Aus

costs about $75 to get everything to convert to disks, but will take a while to put em in, theres a wreckers in hastings, opposite side of the bay to you, that does $75 everything you can carry everyday, and you could get stanza struts and a few other things easily, its just a bit of a drive for you to get there

p.s. im thinking hamilton is near geelong (i think ou said that b4) anyway hastings is near frankston

Dosent sound to bad, but Hamilton is about 2 1/2 hrs from Geelong or 1hr drive to the South Australia border, or Half way between Ballarat and SA Border.

So Hastings would be at least an 5 hr drive for us. But thankyou for trying to help out though.

How about strut's from a Sunny ?? I went out to see our local wreaker to see what they have, they have 2 Sunny's but they would want heaps for the struts , it would be cheaper to drive to Melb in our SS and pick the parts up I need. they are real dickheads !!

They think that because we are out in the bush they can charge what they want, but Im pleased to say they arent doing to well but not smart enough to relise that they are shooting them selves in the foot by overcharging eg at least twice the price from any other wreaker.

Regards
Andrew

Well I just got in from pulling the drums off. There is no oil leak of any kind any where and there is 5mm left on the lineings, how much "meat" is on them when new ?

I blew out all the dust from the drum & lineings etc, there was bloody heaps of the crap, my shed didnt clear for a fair while !

I swaped over the drums from one side to the other and reajusted the lineings up again so they just rub the drum when spun etc.

Took it for a drive and no problem's yet. But the test will be in the morning when everything is cold etc. It looks like some of the cylinders have been replaced at some stage.

I will let you know how it go's tommrow.

Oh I also cheaked the oil level before I did anything else and it was fine, havent used any since I topped it up a while ago.

Regards
Andrew

don't worry about the sunny struts,they are the longest tubes in the nissan range,so fitting them would be good if you were off-roading,the shortest i've found are pintara/skyline struts,followed by 200b.even if you got the sunny struts,you'd still have to change the lower control arms,steering arms & castor rods,as they have the bigger spacing on the bottom.if you found some datsun 120y pbr struts,they bolt in & have a bigger stub axle too.these are found in australian built 120y's & have the same caliper as sigmas.maybe the wreaper,sorry wrecker has a 120y.

Hey Andrew not a good idea to blow out drum linings as all that suspended dust has an unhealthy amount of asbestos in it. Hope the brakes track true now.