Hi all, got an intermittent issue with my brake pedal not fully returning when parking.

The car is a 1966 Dodge Dart with 9" drum brakes (non-power).

I've only ever noticed the issue when parking although it may happen while driving. I always use the parking brake when parking and on occasion I will notice that my brake lights will be on after I get out of the car. The first time it happened I crawled under the dash and noticed the pedal hadn't fully returned. Giving it a little kick puts the pedal back where it should be.

Last month I serviced the brakes which seems to have helped a little, but it still happens on occasion. Anybody have any ideas? I don't suppose there is return spring I'm missing? Or maybe just grease up that pedal linkage real good?

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'66 Dodge Dart

Sounds like your master cylinder is on its way out. That is what pushes the pedal back up. That is why I had to replace mine, it wasn't pushing the pedal back up. I went to a dual master, rear brakes to the front reservior and front brakes to the rear reservior.

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Actually I recently (within the last 2 months) replaced my master cylinder, since my last one was going down hill.

Although today I noticed some brake fluid seemed to be spilling out the top of the reservoir. So I tightened the lid a bit, hoping that will help.

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'66 Dodge Dart

There's a return spring that surrounds the pushrod from the brake pedal.

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

I was wondering about an external return spring that I may have been missing.

The pedal does return almost completely, however every now and then it will stop 1/2" or so short of the brake light switch.

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'66 Dodge Dart

Sounds like you may still have air in your brake system.

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DRIVE IT,DON'T HIDE IT

When is the last time you greased the pedal pivot pin? There's a small screw (3/8" head?) next to the end of the pin. Remove it and pull the pin. The pedal arm will drop free. Clean out the old grease and reassemble with fresh grease.

While you are under there, check the adjustment on the brake light switch.

Ken

I didn't even seen any old grease when I replaced the master cylinder.

Thanks for the tip!

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'66 Dodge Dart

I made a shim out of JB weld and pennies to fix a similar problem.
I fixed the symptom, not the problem

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What's that fuzzy blue thing being hurled this way?
::stick::
BOOSH!!!

I just had this same problem, with a new master cylinder install from last week.

What I found is that my pushrod/pedal would actually return fully (no more travel left) but seems that the travel of the new pushrod was 1/4 inch or so less than stock, and just managed to close the brake light switch MOST of the time, thus leaving brake lights on occasionally.

To support what RustyRamcharger suggested, a simple adjustment of the brake light switch (7/16 bolt holding the brake light switch bracket) solved the issue today. (though this is on a 65 dart not a 66) assuming it would be a similar setup.

Seems that a few people have experienced this which makes me think that some new m/c's have slightly shorter push rods? or slightly shorter travel? is this a common experience?

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Franklyn
1965 Dart GT - 1949 Plymouth Special Deluxe

To add fuel to the fire:

I had the same problem on my D150 when I replaced the power brake booster. I had to readjust the brake light switch so it would shut if off every time. The only down side was that my brake lights didn't react as fast as they did with the OE setup.

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82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

I adjusted mine about 3 times today, and finally found the "sweet spot" It took a bit of testing/adjusting to get the lights to react just right.

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Franklyn
1965 Dart GT - 1949 Plymouth Special Deluxe

I couldn't tell if you did this, but there is definitely a return spring. Double check the spring hasn't lost its strength.

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~Less think, more do