I have a 66' plymouth valiant that I is my first project car. When I apply the brakes, the front end pulls to the right. I think I need to adjust some type of screw or something. Any help would be much appreciated.

thanks,

dan

Did you just do a brake job on it? Make sure you have the right brake shoes in the right spots... I believe one shoe is longer then the other, there should be one long and one short shoe on each side. One of the wheel cylinders could be faulty or the shoes/drum wore out on one side but not the other. Take the tires/drums off and have a peak around.

It could be any number of issues.
First check the things that Pierre said. In the past I had rebuilt the brakes but did not change the rubber hose. This caused the car to pull harder to one side. If your brakes and hoses are new or in good shape you may be able to adjust them. These old drums are self adjusting, but the star adjuster is usually rusted. If the adjuster turns freely, you simply have to drive the car in reverse and stomp on the brakes. Do this several times. If this don't work you can manually turn the star adjuster to either back off brake that pulls, or expand the other brake.

Brakes are something that you can do yourself, but you should make sure they are done right. If you have any doubt's you should get someone knowledgeable to help you out.

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65' Dart. A work in progress..
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Joe

Check the strut rod bushings, if they are cracked, soft or missing, the car will pull to that side under braking.

I once had my car start pulling bad to the right under hard braking, I looked at the brakes and the strut bushing and everything looked ok.
Later I found that the strut rod had broken right behind the bushing, where it is hard to see. Swapped-in a new strut rod and all was good again.
DD

I would bet that it's a leaky wheel cylinder... Take off the wheel of the side that it's pulling toward, pull the drum and you will find glazed shoes from a leaky wheel cylinder, making it all sticky for the drum to "grab" incessantly during harder stops.

Do a brake job. (shoes, wheel cylinders, hoses, MC)

In every car that i've had pulling to one side, it was a leaking wheel cylinder/leaky caliper piston.

PS: don't take it to Midas! do it yourself!!!

I'm having a simillar problem, but only after a bunch of city driving stop and go.... I'm assuming that it's somehow due to the brakes heating up. Then thay begin to pull to the right in quite a dramatic fashion. The right side actually locks up at the slightest touch. When the car is cold, no problem, they do squeal a bit though.

I had the brakes done at a shop about 1000 miles ago or so... they were never right....

I've had a look at the shoes and they seem to be ok, all about the same wear, a bit glazed though I'd say.

Anyone have any thoughts?

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1964 Canadian Valiant Convertible.

See

http://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18294

http://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18073

http://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17224

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

Remember also that pulling on brake application can be caused by unevenly-adjusted rear brakes!

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Well, a disc conversion might help...not the easiest solution at this point, but the vast majority of us will wind up doing it (not to mention the "Guess I better do the suspension while I'm here," feeling that accompanies the swap).

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My wife said "NO!"

Sounds like the wheel cylinder..which mine was. Here is how to adjust the drum in case its just adjusting thats off
Take off the left wheel if it is pulling to the right...and take off the drum
The key is to adjust the bottom screw which will make the drum shoes stick out farther.
Put the drum on, and it should spin less freely.
Take drum off and repeat
Make sure the bearings are tight and the drum can spin with little SHHH noise from the drum shoes..my guess is your right shoes are engaging more than your left shoes.
If thats the only problem, the right will engage more, until you get it right
The best way is to have a shop do it right while spinning the wheels

Hope this helps a little