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Old 08-10-2020, 10:00 PM
John O. John O. is offline
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Default Front drop spindles on a 68, rear brake issue

Someone in the past put Classic Performance 2" drop spindles on the front of my 68 GTO with 80 Malibu brakes. Had recent issues with the disc brakes which someone Mickey moused. One thing Ive noticed is the turning radius seems to be a lot more than on previous GTO's I have owned. Seems like u need a lot of room to get it in a parking space and that the wheels don't turn as much as u would expect. Had new brake shoes put on rear 2 months ago and wheel cylinder blew out so I replaced both of them. Passenger side shoes were soaked with brake fluid But since they only had 200 miles on them I cleaned them up and put it all together. Brakes seemed to be fine driving it twice since I did the work. Today though I had to do a quick stop from 50 mph and the pass rear which had the soaked shoes, locked up. Probably should have just bought new shoes but it would seem to me that if any side would lock up it would be the the side where there was no leak. Never had an issue doing brakes in the past but this car is just a PITA.

  #2  
Old 08-11-2020, 12:26 AM
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ZeGermanHam ZeGermanHam is offline
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One question I have about your turning radius is, have you confirmed that you are hitting the spindle arm stops. If you aren't hitting them at full lock, it could be that someone replaced the steering box in your car at some point with the wrong one and you are hitting the internal stops in steering box prematurely before the spindle arms are maxed out.

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Old 08-11-2020, 09:44 AM
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leeklm leeklm is offline
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And if you are hitting the spindle at full lock, it is possible the aftermarket spindle does not have proper clearance at the stop point. On a similar note, i had to clearance my factory Fbody spindle stop point to provide more clearance on the aftermarket lower control arm i installed for drag racing.

Regarding the drum brake locking, I have had scenarios where gear lube gets on the shoe , causing it to be a little sticky when cold braking, especially on a low traction surface like gravel. When the brakes were hot and on pavement it did not lock, but I assume was not gripping very well.

Replace the shoes and see of that takes care of it.

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Old 08-11-2020, 01:35 PM
John O. John O. is offline
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That could be the problem since its 52 years old and some bozo did a lot of work on it but most of it was Mickey moused. Wheels dont turn as much as it seems it should but I wouldn't doubt the drop spindles affect the steering geometry. Need to check out the issue more but from what I've seen doesn't appear to have stops. Turn it and when it gets to max the power steering starts squealing.

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Old 08-11-2020, 01:38 PM
John O. John O. is offline
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Pulled rear drums and didn't find any problems but I will replace shoes since they were soaked with brake fluid and I cleaned up cause they only had a few hundred miles on them.

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