Bleeding brakes?

[kaptekarev]

Talking to someone about '63 convertible. Seller says brakes don't work, thinks there is air in the lines. Ideally I'd like to drive the car home, and if it is indeed a question of bleeding the breaks, I'd have that done before I pick up the car.

What are some good questions to ask in order to diagnose a brake problem? Does '63 have drums all around? Is it hard to find shops willing to work on these old cars? Does anyone know of a good mechanic in the Redondo Beach area?

Do these cars have points and condenser ignition?

[kook43]

Welcome to the forum!

Brakes on a 5000+lb slab of steel are a necessity. Air is one thing, water, rust and gunk are another. You could be ok with just a bleed or you could be in big trouble if the hoses or cylinders blow on your way home (look ma' no brakes!). I'd have it flatbedded to save yourself any thought of grief, as other things may be wrong as well. You won't know unless you spend some time with the car. Depends on how far you have to go!

The brakes are vacuum assisted, single master reservoir mc, (hard to find good replacement) drums. So, all the vacuum hoses should be checked/replaced (if previous owner doesn't know their history). The same with the wheel cylinders. Troubleshooting has been documented well in many threads.

There are several SoCal members here on the board. The search function at the top of the page is your friend.

Drums all the way around stock, but a member here on the board engineers a disc conversion ( jleonard ). Brakes were a show stopper for me, so I documented a dual mc upgrade (as others have done), check my signature.

Yes, points and condenser stock, but there are several electronic upgrades, Pertronix II is one of them.

Good luck
Kook -

[toddallen]

I'd have it flatbedded to save yourself any thought of grief, as other things may be wrong as well.

Ahhh matey, good advice

[kaptekarev]

That's good advice, I guess flat bed it is. I looked on the U-Hual site, has anyone ever flat bedded one of these with UHaul gear? Can I do it with one of their pickup trucks and their car carrier? The max dimensions on their carrier are 79" wide (wheel to wheel) and 133" long (wheel to wheel) will that fit a lincoln?

I'll be transporting it from LA to Santa Cruz (300mi).

[toddallen]

The Uhaul car trailers are not rated for this weight, so you will have to lie on what you are carrying. The fenders on the trailer are also too close and will scrape up your rocker panels, and that is with the engine out.

I wonder how I know all this....

Did I mention it will make one of the tires blow?

[kook43]

I think Stu had his own flatbed for transport at one time. Just located the thread.

The car is 2.4 tons plus the weight of a substantial trailer, a normal pickup's not going to do it. Wheel to wheel is 123". But I seem to remember clearance issues for the basic uHaul's from someone here in the past.

300 miles isn't crazy if you know the car.

Anyone in L.A. have a big'Ole flatbed? Otherwise it's a towing company or specialty transport. Depends on how bad you want the car.

It's fun watching your car go down the road.

Good luck
Kook-

[DB]

If it was just air in the lines, why doesn't the seller do it and make the car driveable? What are the symptoms? Hard pedal? Pedal goes to the floor? The brakes are very basic, most parts are easy to find, except the drums.

[black63lincoln]

[ReijerLincoln]

If it was just air in the lines, why doesn't the seller do it and make the car driveable? What are the symptoms? Hard pedal? Pedal goes to the floor? The brakes are very basic, most parts are easy to find, except the drums.

That's a good point. If the master cylinder and power brake booster are bad it will cost you another $300 to $350 in parts. The booster is pain to get out with the dash in place.


The next time I do this.... I'm getting a bigger truck!

[toddallen]

They obviously are not set up for land barges in The Netherlands- Look at that poor rear tire on the truck

[norgale]

This car has about 50 miles on it since I got it and the miles are all on the back of a wrecker. Here we are moving the car to a storage unit after I got the engine in and running and the boss made me move it out of his parking lot where I worked. It's still in the storage unit with no brakes and it's going to stay there until it cools down some around here,probably November or so.
Damn I love the looks of this car.
Reijer; If our cars were a few inches longer neither one would have fit on these two trucks. Good ol' sleds.

[carnutofthedecade]

Who needs brake! How far do you have to drive the car??? Does the emergency brake work???

I hate to say this, but working the emergecy brake and downshifting, I have moved brakeless vehicles that I have purchased! Just choose a time when traffic is light!

[bwoll]

I hate to say this, but working the emergecy brake and downshifting, I have moved brakeless vehicles that I have purchased! Just choose a time when traffic is light!

Please let us know next time your doing this so we can stay off the roads.

[ReijerLincoln]

@ Todd & Pete: I wasn't exactly pleased when this tiny truck showed up because I had specifically asked for the biggest one they had. Sadly, that burned down the week before when someone crashed into it from the side: truck, car underneath & car on top all burned out completely. But because I had to get the car moved somewhere else and I did not dare start it again I decided to use this Dinky Toy. We drove slowly & carefully and arrived safely. I was very nervous though...

[black63lincoln]

kaptekarev, these brake systems are fairly simple and id think most shops would be capable of working on them.. drum brakes are pretty much the same design for most vehicles..

if your shoes are good then you have a decent start to get the car drivable.. the big expense with these cars is finding turnable drums, so if your shoes are worn and scraping up the drums it can get expensive..
the common problem ive seen with cars that sit are the brake cylinders.. they get rusted on the outer edge of the piston sleeve and as soon as you hit the brake after 5 years they push out into the rusty surface and dont return.. the ruturn springs on the shoes is all there is to pull them back in and once they are jammed thats it.. the common misconception is that the cylinders are expensive to fix which they are not... i bought mine for about 20 bucks each and it took me a weekend to install all four taking my time

another problem is the master cylinder, they also get gummed up with crud and freeze up.. you can take it apart yourself, clean things up and get it working but the best way to go is to install a newer dual master cylinder which is much safer..

air in the lines is probably not the only issue.. but it is pretty much a standard to flush out all the old fluid whenever buying one of these cars anyway.. new rubber flexable lines at the wheels is a good idea also.. there are two up front and one at the rear axle

one more common issue is rust on the top hinge of the brake pedal itself.. this causes the pedal to not return.. sometimes a squirt of wd40 can help but the best fix is to remove the pedal and get all of the rust off and regrease.. very time consuming because of the location way up behind the dash..

hey, the bottom line is dont miss out on that convertible just because the brakes dont work..