Sticking front brake?

My 73 GT,
Sympton #1 Sometimes when I hit the brakes it wants to pull to the right.

Symptom #2 Premature lock on hard braking.

I'd look for oil or grease on the Left brake first. Weakness on one side will cause the other to seem like it is working too strongly.

Edit, The premature locking is on the RF.

After a drive put your hand on the hubs and see if one is hotter than the other. This could indicate a sticking piston in the caliper. I had one that would actually smoke after a drive. Hopefully it is less serious than that.

Carl, classic caliper going south.....to end it forever, get the stainless steel pistons for your calipers, rebuilt and problem solved. Brit Tek has them. Stainless steel never sticks or corodes.

also if the brake hose is failing (collapsing) it won't allow the pressure to return after brake application... The first thing I look at in this type of situation is the hose. Then if the hose is fine I will rebuild the caliper.
Michael

graflexmaster Wrote:

I have this problem, one brake will stick after a short trip and not release until cooled down.
Is there an easy way to check if it's the caliper or brake hose? If I open the bleed screw and it releases does that mean it's the hose?

An oil soaked pad will also lock when hot. It sounds like time for "the works". A pair of loaded calipers with hoses should take care of it!

Noah, Yes.

Clifton

Thanks Clifton. I'll give that a try and see what happens.

Every "caliper" problem I've had on either of my MGBs has always turned out to be a hose collapsed internally. Not saying the calipers can never go bad, but so far mine haven't. About 25 years ago I went as far as rebuilding the calipers on the GT to solve front lockup problem...then afterwards realized it was the hoses.

I had the same issue. I had just fixed the rears with new cylinders and brake cable. I think one of the calipers was sticking. The left was hotter than the right. It pulled sort of left. One locked easily and the other one did not.

I took the lazy way out. I fixed the rears piecemeal and wanted the problem fixed quickly. Rock auto calipers and 2 new stock hoses. Cost a little over $100, three years ago. I did not want to bleed the brakes several times trying to figure out what was really wrong.

Took about an hour to install. All issues went away. Should be good for 20 years.

Now I have the problem of old hard tires. When one of my kids gets out of college i will get new tires.

Larry

owlman Wrote:

rear brakes may need tightening some. check that too before rebuilding anything or it may have oil on it. Tighen rears til wheel wont turn the back off a til it moves. take of parking brake first.