• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Brakes lock up when rolling forward

Share this page

P

PHulst

Jedi Hopeful
Country flag
Offline
My 1959 100-6 has been moved around the shop a bit this winter, the last time being last week. I started it up as usual and moved it from one side to the other and noticed no issues.

Las night I had to move it forward so started it, put it in gear and let out the clutch. In doing so I found that 2 of the 4 wheels (I think both fronts) will not rotate even 1 full revolution before locking up and dragging. I can back up the car by pushing or under power and no problems. I just can't move much forward.

Any thoughts? I may end up trying to back off the adjusters and see if that helps. Otherwise I will put the fronts on wheel dollies in the short term just to move the car.
I thought about a bad brake hose but that doesn't seem like it would affect both sides.

This is a bit of a puzzle.
 
I suppose its possible. I know that one of the shocks leaks badly, and it’s on the to-do list once I get moving on the car. I haven’t yet seen brake fluid on the floor, though.
 
I agree with John and would suggest a fast look by pulling the drums. This is not a hard or time consuming job and if the linings are wet will tell you their condition. Keep in mind that a very slow wheel cylinder leak can be absorbed into a sitting brake lining without showing any fluid outside of the drum. It is when the shoe is saturated or the leak increases over the absorbtion rate of the shoe that excess fluid is expelled. Since this condition has only recently started, I would expect that the wheel cylinder may have hung up internally or was on the bitter edge of retaining the fluid with this stimulated by cold contracting temperatures.

Keep in mind that this may not ever happened in warmer weather or when the car was actively in use as the heated brakes could have been enough to evaporate the slow seepage.

Hope this helps,
Ray(64BJ8P1)
 
If the car is sitting for a while the drums can rust where they are not in contact with the shoe. That combined with a drum out of round could cause the brake to drag badly. It could feel like it's locking up. Either way pulling and examining the drums and wheel cyl seems like the best idea. Wheel cyl and calipers can be bad without leaking.
 
Back
Top