Question about brakes

[Rosco]

I have a question about the brakes on my 1950 Plymouth -  after the car has been sitting a few days I have to pump the brakes once or twice to bring the pedal pressure up.  Is this normal? After I do that, they work fine while I’m driving - no fading, no loss of pedal pressure, no pulling right or left etc., even in a hard stop.  The brake system was rebuilt about 5000 miles ago except the master cylinder and the car is mechanically checked every year and all fluids, including the brake fluid are always kept full.  Thanks in advance.

[Ivan_B]

1 hour ago, Rosco said:

Is this normal?

No it is not. Did you already attempt to bleed the brakes using a pressure bleeder, etc? If that does not help, you might want to rebuild your master and carefully inspect all of the slaves for signs of small leaks as well.

Edited November 24 by Ivan_B

[Loren]

Before you do anything, check the brake adjustment.

If your brakes are out of adjustment you'll have to pump them to get them to work.

Get a shop manual if you don't have one and follow the directions.

[desoto1939]

Sounds like brake shoes out of adjustment and the shoes and not close enough to the drum.  Do you have access to an Ammco 1750 Brake gage to get them set up correctly?

 

This tool is not cheap but if you plan to keepthe car this one of the tools that you will need to purchase or even borrow if you can to get the shoes adjusted properly.

 

Also go the  technical section and do a search on the Ammco brake gage tool. i have done several seminars about this tool.

 

Rich Hartung

desoto1939@aol.com

[Sam Buchanan]

Here is a tutorial from our Research sub-forum on understanding how to adjust brakes. Some time with this document and checking your adjustments may help your brakes.

 

https://p15-d24.com/page/p15d24/tech/brakes.html/

[Rosco]

Thanks for the responses and suggestions - with these in mind I’ll definitely have my mechanic take a look at the brakes in the Spring when I bring the car out of storage.  (When it comes to safety, I prefer to let the experts handle it and the mechanics at the shop I go to are very knowledgeable about these older cars).