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MG TD TF 1500 - Brakes pulling to the left

I have been having brake trouble since I rebuilt my TD. Last week I rebuilt the front wheels and indeed I had reversed the slave cylinders and had too trailing shoes. The workshop manual diagram is confusing but after careful inspection I got it right. Now the car stops on a dime but with hard braking it pulls hard to the left. The shoes seem clean, all four cylinders are working when viewed through the adjusting holes and the brakes seem properly bled. The tires are equally inflated. The alignment was checked with the Moss alignment jig. There is little wear on the tires so I have not tried swapping them right to left. Any ideas
N. Oakley

Make sure each drum is adjusted equally with the manual adjusters. I like just a perceptable drag or turn the adjuster until the drum is just locked tight, then back off each drum an equal number of clicks - usually one or two will do it. Do all of this with the front of the car jacked up and on jack stands. Be safe.
BRIAN WARMUTH

Perhaps a collapsed brake hose on the right front, or a kink in the brake line from the 4-way fitting ? Phil
Phil Atrill

I learned the hard way that if any brake fluid at all ever touched the linings, they will not stop evenly and might eventually break free of the shoes, if they are the bonded type.
Also, are these new shoes; were they arced to mate with the drums. I don't think that this is critical if the radii are close, but if they are very different on one side or the other, you could have a disparity in contact area.
Also, I found, on my car, that the difference in adjustment is one click between locked and totally free. If you have an out of round drum, you might be having to let off too much adjustment in order for it not to rub.
Steven Tobias

Have you run out of range for adjustment? This is a common problem on the rears. Your may need shims on the adjustment masks.
Ben
M Prince

Run the car at 10 to 15 MPH on a gravel road and stomp on the brakes hard enough to make the wheels lock up. get out and check the skid marks to see which wheel is locking up before the others or locking up later than the others. It will cut your work by 4 knowing which wheel is the culprit. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Whilst on this subject:
One of my front cylinders was leaking badly.
Not wanting to take them all off and ship out for a rebuild / re-sleve till winter...I honned that one out (badly pitted). Now it pulls severly to that side. Could this be because that "one cylinder" is working so much better than the others?
Stops straight as an arrow backwards, but pulls horrably to the left on hard braking going forward.
At least it's not leaking anymore...but haven't driven much since. Adjustment seems to be same on both front wheels....only does this under "hard" braking. Would it make any sence to hone cylinders on oppsite wheel and see if that corrects it?
I know ...I should bite the bullet and remove all of them and ship off for re-sleving.
David Sheward

Dave, It sounds like we have the same problem. I jacked up the front end spun the wheels and hit the brakes the left definately stopped first.
Do you think it makes more sense to resleeve to just by new after market cylinders?
N. Oakley

Resleeved cylinders would probably last forever, but the latest aftermarket units (fronts) are really inexpensive.
Steven Tobias

This thread was discussed between 22/07/2010 and 27/07/2010

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