Pinto Car Club of America

Still working on my 74 wagon. Runs now and is all legal but the brake pedal takes alot of effort to get the car to stop and it doest provide much braking power. The front pads are new (oreilly/brake best) and everything in the back (wheel cylinders, shoes, springs, adjusters, etc) is new, except the one brake hose and the drums. I did also have the drums turned. I did not replace the mater cylinder, any brake lines or hoses, proportioning valve or calipers. The calipers compressed ok and dont appear wet anywhere and dont appear to have been anytime in the past. I did have to put brake fluid in the master cylinder the other day for both brake systems, but the back system had a leaky wheel cylinder. Who knows why the front was low. The rotors have a bunch of black spots on the braking surface... i suspect they had rusted  while sitting and the brakes arent working well up front and therefore hasnt cleaned the rotors off real well, even tho the rust itself is gone. I now suspect a brake hose to be bad. The hoses should be black but have turned kinda grey and are cracked... you can see the white lining inside the hose, but nothing is wet or and it doesnt look like it ever has. I suspect the calipers are fine since they compressed ok. The hoses or proportioning valve is all i can think of.  I did notice when i bought the car that the brake light sensor wiring was unplugged from the sensor (in the prop. valve). I think, that since the car does not pull to one side that maybe the prop. valve is bad?  :-\  ??? What do you guys think? I cant stop this thing very well.

 How well did you bleed the brake lines? You still might have some air in them :accident:

Do you have power brakes? If so I'd suspect the booster.

No power brakes... something somewhere is stuck. May be the prop. valve, most likely the master cyl, or a caliper. even though the calipers compressed well, they may still yet be stuck. They can get crooked in the bores if the "O" rings aren't up to snuff. Personally I NEVER scrimp on the whoa, you never know when they'll save your hiney!! You're on the right track by rebuilding the rear brakes, & I suspect that's all you've got working. I'm thinking that if you spray your rotors with paint & do one or two easy stops that you'll see wether your front brakes are actually working. The paint will be gone from the rotors & transferred to the pads.

The brakes are manual. Does anyone know of the brake proportioning valves are the same between manual and power brake cars? I have a prop. valve from a 79/80 power brake car.