1937 Packard 115 coupe

[zzrodder]

When I built my 46 I had a brand new caliper that was hanging up. It was from Napa. Unfortunately, it shouldn't happen with new parts but it does.

Just thinking out loud, there should be an easy way to differentiate when it's doing it if the line is holding pressure or if the caliper is holding pressure on.

Since both front brakes were doing it, I'm kinda suspecting the residual valve. By the time I got it jacked up and the wheels off, things were still pretty hot, couldn't hold onto the lug nuts for long after taking them off.... I'm also wondering about the metallic pads being part of the problem. Going to get into it tomorrow and put on my thinking toque and solve it

 

[soltz]

Never doubted it [cl
{{[P}}

 

[MercuryMac]

ZZ, here's one more thing to think about. When I put a vacuum booster in the brake system of my '55 Merc, I finally discovered that I had the short rod between the booster and the master cylinder a wee bit too long. I can't remember the exact symptoms though, either the master cylinder piston wouldn't come back far enough to release the pressure in the brake lines or the booster wouldn't move to it's neutral position and open a valve to let vacuum in.
Good luck sleuthing.

 

[Old Iron]

I done the same thing Mac did and got the pedal to master cylinder rod adjusted too long. It was fine when first driving the car, as the brakes heated up the fluid it started clamping down on the rotor.

 

[zzrodder]

ZZ, here's one more thing to think about. When I put a vacuum booster in the brake system of my '55 Merc, I finally discovered that I had the short rod between the booster and the master cylinder a wee bit too long. I can't remember the exact symptoms though, either the master cylinder piston wouldn't come back far enough to release the pressure in the brake lines or the booster wouldn't move to it's neutral position and open a valve to let vacuum in.
Good luck sleuthing.

I done the same thing Mac did and got the pedal to master cylinder rod adjusted too long. It was fine when first driving the car, as the brakes heated up the fluid it started clamping down on the rotor.

You guys may be onto something there, I seem to recall having the pedal adjusted pretty tight to eliminate free play. Thanks, I will check it out today.

 

[zzrodder]

MercuryMac and Old Iron, you guys were right on the money! I had adjusted the rod from the booster to the pedal too tight so it was pressed in about 1/8", enough to cause the fronts to drag. The rear drums had not shown the effect because I hadn't got them properly adjusted yet. Backed off the booster rod adjustment and they are fine now, several runs up and down the road, no drag. Another change was to put on a heavier return spring on the pedal to keep it up properly. I also gave the distributor more advance and tightened up the TV cable to the AOD, that woke up the sleepy 302 and got it shifting right. I'm glad I only put a 450CFM Edelbrock 4bbl carb on instead of a 600, you can stomp on it and there's no bog, it just gits
Once again, the good people on this site have come to the rescue instead of flaming someone when they screw up [cl[cl

 

[Old Iron]

Nice to hear it was an easy fix

 

[MercuryMac]

Thank you, ZZ, for calling us good people.
I'm glad it worked out.

 

[05snopro440]

Great to hear!

 

[Torchie]

Great news, ZZ. [cl
You are 100 percent right about the fine folks on this site.
[P [P [P
Torchie

 

[zzrodder]

Doing the upgrade to halogen bulbs for the headlights. I didn't have the original reflectors, which would have needed to be re-silvered anyways, so for new buckets I bought some cheap stainless bowls and got headlight sockets from the boneyard from 2002ish Ford F150's.

I cut the sockets out of the headlights and JB welded them to the bowls, roughed up the surfaces first so the JB weld grips better.

Also added a couple screws for insurance in case the JB lets go.

Let there be light!

 

[Torchie]

Great job on the headlight buckets, ZZ.
Torchie

 

[I-R-POPS]

That's using the ole noggin. Perfect solution.

 

[joedoh]

nice solution! is the light pattern ok?[cl[cl[cl

 

[soltz]

Improvise, Adapt & Overcome [cl

Let there be light indeed

 

[zzrodder]

nice solution! is the light pattern ok?[cl[cl[cl

Thanks, though I didn't think this one up all by myself, saw a vid on youtube do do something similar, just applied it to these lights. Have to get it out in the dark to really know how well they work, but it has to be a heckuva lot better than the original 6 volt bulbs would have put out.

 

[Old Iron]

[cl[cl[cl

 

[05snopro440]

Thanks, though I didn't think this one up all by myself, saw a vid on youtube do do something similar, just applied it to these lights. Have to get it out in the dark to really know how well they work, but it has to be a heckuva lot better than the original 6 volt bulbs would have put out.

I've seen that video too. Curious how it actually works!

 

[Bamamav]

The lights really set it off ZZ! Looks finished from here!

 

[zzrodder]

Yupper