I have a pull to the left in my Dart when stopping (front disks/rear drums). Alignment didn't help it. Bushings (A frames and struts) are good as are ball joints.

But just today I noticed a pulsing sound, like a brake shoe dragging on an out of round drum, coming from the left rear when stopping. The sound is minor and you have to listen for it. Also, as you stop slowly, the car actually moves slightly up and down in perfect sync with the sound. None of this happens when off the brakes. Plan to do the brakes this weekend (which is no problem for me), but just courious, can a dragging left rear brake cause a pull to the left up front? And can I stop this by turning the drum?
Thanks!
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Shadow Sabre

It very well could. Turning the drum should get the "egg" shape out of it, if there is enough "meat" left to turn it out. You always want both sides to be adjusted as close to the same as you can get, though this is much more critical front drums.

A good test would be, find a safe place and use your "E" brake to stop a few times. If you have the pull on the E brake, then your problem is in the rear shoes and or drums. If it don't pull on the E brake, you could still have a hydraulic problem in the rear, but you could rule out shoes and drums.


TopHat

do you have pedal feedback...? out of round drums can feed back into the pedal

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'72 Valiant DD for over a decade-225-Disc brakes, big T-bars, big Sway bars f/r, carter bbd/super six, GM HEI, 2- 12" subs in trunk, 1000w amp...
'77 cherokee cheif widetrack-360-33x12.5 tires-no lift. keeps driveway dry-project/backup DD/mudder

That's the strange thing. The feedback in the pedal is barely detectable. I got out this afternoon and checked both front disks. The pads on both sides are equally worn. I used a micrometer to check for runout and different thicknesses but all was well. The front brake rubber hoses are fairly new. And as I said before, all front bushings/ball joints are good. I don't think that this is in the front end.

I drove the car and tried stopping a few times with just the emergency brake. The pulsing sound and slight car shake was still there, but it doesn't pull to the left with just the emergency brake. Of course, with the emergency brake stopping power is considerably less. If I roll the car without the brakes at the same speeds, it doesn't pull, and I don't hear anything...but...I can still slightly feel the shake! The wheels are thick aluminum mags, so they would most likely break before they bent. But...I wonder if I might have a slightly bent axle??
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homemade vaporizer

is it possible that one of your rear wheels are just out of balance?

Don't think so (but not sure), as the scraping noise wouldn't necessarily mean a balance problem. Also, this sound and shake is most pronounced when stopping from about 20 mph on down, although the pull left happens at most all speeds. But the car is also pretty noisy at higher speeds from the back end. Suppose it could also be a bad rear bearing, but it doesn't have that growl sound.

Tomorrow I intend to jack up the rear axle and look for wiggle of some kind from the rear wheels while they are turning.
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vapir one

If your torsion bars are adjusted too low, one side will touch the stopper first, and pull in that direction. Make sure the front end is high enough. Then look for a leaking wheel cylindar on the rear, or front. The fluid will make the drum grab. Also check to make sure one brake drum set is not on backwards.

Sam

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I think you may have two problems. It would be very strange for the car to pull sideways from a rear brake problem. Maybe it’s possible, but it would be rare. Plus you said it doesn’t pull with the parking brake. If it pulls at the steering wheel, it’s in the front. If you had a loose rear end mounting, the rear would sway around but the steering wheel wouldn’t be affected.

I’ve had brake drums that were turned off -center from the center hole. Or, the center hole wasn’t concentric with the way it was originally balanced so the first time the drums were turned it was out of balance. That could cause a little pedal pulse and an out of balance shake.

On mine, it felt like a wheel was coming off at highway speeds but it didn't cause any pedal pulse and I had to have the wheels balanced on the car.

With no bearing surfaces like the fronts have, I wonder if it’s even possible to have a rear drum turned perfectly and have often wished they had some easy method of balancing them. I’ve seen very few that didn’t make a tschhh, tschhh, tschhh sound while adjusting new brakes and spinning by hand. If you can hear it driving with the windows closed there is some kind of problem there... but it cold be nothing.

The front end dipping as you stop, and the pull to the left, is most likely the front rotors. They can be turned out of concentricity or a hard stop while they are hot can warp them. They make no noise at all unless something is loose. There is less wiggle room for the fronts so they are more prone to making a pedal pulse. If only one is warped it could definitely cause a pull.

Danny

Interesting....I've come to the same conclusion. Two different problems I mean. I don't think it's a rotor problem. Yesterday I checked both rotors for runout and thickness variations (as well as for parrallel sides) and found no problems. Checked the calipers to see if they were sticking. Nope. It was suggested that there may be a restriction in one of the front brake lines, but the lines are nearly new, and I can lock up both front wheels evenly in a panic type stop. But...some of the front end parts were reworked just before I got the car, and I think that the problem with the pull, although I didn't notice it when I first got the car, may be a simple alignment problem. Yesterday I found that two of the upper A arm bushing nuts were loose!! Well, that ain't good. So it's off to the alignment shop in the next day or so.

However, the noise is definately coming from the rear, and what I thought was a dipping in the front (that is syncronized perfectly with the noise) actually seems to be a rise in the rear. The back of the car is bouncing (up and down) in perfect sync with the noise. This is not a large bounce, but enough to very easily feel it. A friend road in the back with the seat out, and swears the sound and bounce is coming from the left rear. If true, that is probably why I thought it was a sideways shake. A frozen shock could have this effect as well, but they are all okay. This is my reasoning for an out of round drum or more possibly a slightly bent axle.

It's puzzling. I've been working on Mopars for nearly 50 years and thought I'd seen (and fixed) it all. This is new to me. I had planned today to put the whole rear end up on jack stands and observe for odd movement while the wheels were turning, but I didn't get a chance to get to it. Will try tomorrow.

Thanks for the response!
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Ford Elite specifications

It sounds like you’re getting it narrowed down. I’m thinking rear axle bearing now. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one bounce, but it’s worth a check.

It should be easy to see when you take it apart, though. Spin the axle by hand without the wheel and feel for roughness.

Danny