Howdy all.

1967 130.

My brakes have never been great, but they recently took a turn for the worse...

Starting a month or two ago, my rear passenger-side wheel began locking up under the slightest bit of brake pressure.

I'd pull away from the house and stepping on the brakes as I approached the first stop sign a block away, that rear tire would lock up seemingly before any of the other three wheels were braking at all. It would lock up and I actually wouldn't feel like I was even slowing down that much at all. This would happen even at very low speeds (20mph).

After 5 or 10 minutes of driving, taking it easy on the brakes, the symptoms would go away and the brakes would feel "normal" again. But if I parked for any substantial period I'd have to do the minimal-braking routine all over again. Then last week it happened with the other rear wheel too.

I deduced that it must be a problem with the rear wheels. I confess that in 4 years and 15k miles I've never even inspected the rear brakes. I spent much of the last week trying to get my rear drums off. Thanks to previous posts on this board, I got a hold of the "proper" puller and, with far more force than I dreamed necessary, I finally got the drums off this evening.

Low and behold, everything looks relatively OK on both rears. One of the cylinders has leaked a couple drops, but fluid doesn't appear to have gotten on anything but the cylinder itself yet. The shoes have plenty of meat on them still. The adjusters turn freely. The drums don't have lips worn into them. Sure a little rust and a lot of dust, but all in all they seem much better than I'd imagined.

So upon seeing that, my new theory is that the FRONT brakes are the ones with the problem...

Does this seem reasonable? I apply pedal pressure, and the fronts, perhaps with their action being sticky or gummy, are not budging at first? They need to be worked a little before they want to play the slow-down game? So all action goes to the rears, which causes an easy lockup?

or could this be a proportioning valve issue?

Next question- now that I've got the rears apart, I think I'm going to go ahead and replace: shoes, wheel cylinders, and new hardware kit (I actually borrowed the drum puller from a friendly fellow on Craigslist, so I'd like to do all I can before I seal the drums back up).

why does IPD offer 1" bore as well as 7/8" bore cylinders for the Girling setup?

What's original? What's better? RPR only seems to list the 1" version in their section devoted to this car model.

As always, thanks in advance.

v

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PS-- if you're reading this because you're trying to get those stubborn rear drums off, you're frustrated and you found this post by search, follow the advice of those before me in years past:

- get your hands on the proper puller. A normal 3-claw puller won't do. You need the heavy duty steel flange type that bolts up to the wheel lugs. IPD version or equivalent.

- I tried heat (both hot water and torching), I tried liberal amounts of penetrating oil, and I tried beating things with a 3lb hammer; though I'm certain none of these hurt my cause, none seemed to do the trick. What finally did get the drums off was overcoming my fear of stripping the threads on the puller's jack screw, putting a 3ft cheater pipe on it and putting most of my weight into it. I estimate I applied about 300 ft-lbs of torque before the drum finally gave its satisfying pop. I really thought there was a good chance I was going to break the tool, but it turned out fine. (Put a good layer of grease on the threads if you're going to do this).

- Leave the castle nut on loose, so that when the drum decides to release it doesn't go flying.

- good luck.