Struggling with brakes pulling to one side

[Nimrod]

67 Traveller.
New master cylinder, new drums all round, two new slave cylinders, one on each side in the front, no others weeping as far as I can see, new shoes and springs on front, all bralks adjusted properly, suspension and rear-axle mounting points all tight, yet it is STILL pulling to the left. Can anyone suggest anything that I've missed?

[chickenjohn]

Worn bushes, or tracking out?, The tie bar bushes may be knackered (gone soft), or tie bar rod or bolt is loose. What about the spacer between tie bar mounting bolt and wishbone- if this was left out, the suspension geometry can change and cause a pull under braking.

What about a worn brake drum? Air in the brake lines on one side (a standard Minor brake pedal should be rock hard)

[Nimrod]

Worn bushes, or tracking out?, The tie bar bushes may be knackered (gone soft), or tie bar rod or bolt is loose. What about the spacer between tie bar mounting bolt and wishbone- if this was left out, the suspension geometry can change and cause a pull under braking.

What about a worn brake drum? Air in the brake lines on one side (a standard Minor brake pedal should be rock hard)

All bushes renewed last year. All new drums as in original post! Shouldn't be any air in brake lines, they were bled by the garage when the new slaves were fitted...the garage also checked all the suspension mounting points for tightness as I asked them to....

[chickenjohn]

check them again yourself. If a garage did the work, i would check it all again. Garage may not have bled brakes properly or missed something.

What about this?:- "What about the spacer between tie bar mounting bolt and wishbone- if this was left out, the suspension geometry can change and cause a pull under braking. " examine both sides- are they the same?

don;t rely on a garage, jack the car up and have a good look yourself. Not many modern mechanics understand old cars such as Minors, they don't know where to plug in the diagnostics

[Willie]

Does the car pull to one side from cold or only when you have done several miles? If only after some miles then, the next time it pulls to one side stop the car and feel the hub caps (preferably after about five minutes so that the heat can soak through). If one side is considerably hotter than the other side then it is not clearing the drum after brake use
causing drag which causes the hot side to work very poorly. i.e. if it pulls to one side then the hub centre on the OPPOSITE side will be overheated. This has been a recurring problem with front wheel cylinders
with no apparent cure except to replace.

[markattard]

I had the same problem few weeks ago, the solution was shoes adjustment with the Brake Shoe Adjusting Cam ... The misadjusted brake shoe just did not make it to the drum for balanced braking...

[bmcecosse]

Are you sure the shoes are on the right way round on both sides ? Why did you not just renew ALL 4 slave cylinders on the front wheels - then you would know it's all new. Probably a sticking cylinder - bleeding and adjustment have little or no effect on 'pulling'. If it's pulling left - the brake on the right is not working properly. The effect may come from the rear cylinders of course - are they both free and easy ??

[rayofleamington]

faulty rear cylinders are not very noticeable on a Minor (except when trying to use the handbrake).
I'd also want to check and re-check that you've not got a stuck cylinder on the right.

If all cylinders are proven to work fine, and bleeding & adjustment are ok, then try swapping shoes and drums to the other side to see what happens.

Wehn my traveller had been standing for a few months I had hassle to get it through the MOT due to brake bias. I had to swap shoes around etc.. to get it more even but as soon as it was back on the road being used, the brake balance sorted itself out.

[bmcecosse]

Yes - i've had that too - mix and match with the shoes until it pulled up square!