I'm a newbie to the forum but been reading many of the wonderful posts. Being a long tine Porsche enthusiast without deep pockets I purchased a used speedster from Beck last year. I truly love driving it but, it has pulled right while braking from day one. I even noticed it during the test drive and was assured it would be fixed before delivery. Unfortunately when it was delivered to MD and I took my first drive, it still pulled right. It was so much fun, I thought, chalk it up to lessons learned and drove it until I thought it was unsafe. I did all the obvious things like check tire pressure, look for leaks and that wheels rotated freely. Since I worked my way through college working for a Porsche dealer and having experienced ownership of one of my favorite cars, a Karmann Ghia, to drive maintain and repair I thought no problem, so I got out my 30 year old automotive tools and started investigating. Nothing obvious except for signs the right front may have been slightly discolored more then the left. Obvious sign it was doing more work. Tried bleeding all four with no improvement. Long story short, At this point the only thing that has not been replaced is the master cylinder and the steel brake lines from the MC to the flexible, now braided steel lines. I just took it out and it still pulls right. Should I continue replacing the MC and steel lines or am I forgetting something more basic?
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First things first..... Does the car have "drums" in the rear????? If so, your problem is most likely there..... (Not for sure, but more likely) If you have drums, and you adjust the brakes with unsatisfying results, they may be contaminated with "oil" from a leaky axel seal or wheel cylinder.... This will have to be repaired, and new brake shoes installed...... Hope this helps....
If your donor chassis has the later dual master cylinder (id'd by 2 brake switches on master cylinder), the safety brake system is diagonal. If one circuit fails, the other circuit still works. So the right side caliper and rear left side drum may be only circuit working. Did you bleed system and were the flow streams pretty consistent?
I had the same problem and it turned out to be the master plumbing was wrong. It had left side, right side and it should have been FRONT and BACK. Good luck and keep us posted.
In addition to all of the good idas up above, try looking at it inversely, meaning that the right caliper is working just fine, but the LEFT caliper is hanging up and not applying equal pressure with the right side. If that happens, it will pull to the stronger side.
The cure would then be to insure that the left caliper piston is not hanging up, nor is the caliper binding on the mount slides. Either of those will cause weaker brakeing on that side.
I would start with Leon's suggestion, though, and have someone who knows drum brake adjusting look at the rear drums and make them even. That is always the first reason why these cars pull to one side or the other. Also, these cars NEED a road test after rear brake adjustment to insure that they are pulling even. It usually takes 2-3 iterations before you get them right.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll do more checking and let you know what I find out. I didn't realize the rears would be contributing since it's such a hard pull right. The thing tracks perfectly when not applying the brakes.
Finally had time to examine the rear shoes and drums. You guys obviously know your stuff. I discovered the driver side wheel cylinder completely frozen up. New ones should be here later this week. Can't wait to get the SpaB car back on the road.
Good - sounds like you are replacing both. Make sure that whomever tightens the 36mm bolt, torques it to 270 ft pounds (it might call for 250#, I forget but it is really torqued down). If it isn't tightened enough, it will quickly eat the drive splines out of the rear drums and NO GO.
Even if it DOES call for 250 ft. Lbs., torque to 270 anyway.
Yea, Doing both. Decided to put new shoes on as well. I have read plenty about the amount of torque on the wheel nut. I will be sure to crank it tight. Thanks for everbodies advice.
Thanks for reporting back and closing this out.