Brake pedal won't go up itself [Buick -58]

[Guest Landmer]

My friend have a buick special -58 that we have tried to fix the main brake cylinder on.

We replaced the "piston" and gaskets and made a hening/grinding (don't really know the english word) of the cylinder to get rid of rust and scratches.

This all took about a year because of other things coming in the way...

So when we finally had got it together again and had put out the air the brakes worked just fine! But as you press the pedal it won't go up itself after you have taken the foot of it.

How is it supposed to go up? Can we have missed some part or what have we done wrong?

Regards Eddie Landmer

[Guest rsd9699]

Pictures?

Manual or power brakes?

Ron

[Fred Zwicker]

I had a similar problem on a '58 Continental - the pedal wouldn't come back and as a result the brakes were dragging. The good thing about it was that others had looked at and driven this car and wouldn't buy it because of what turned out to be a very minor probem with an easy fix. I probably saved thousands of dollars on my purchase price by taking a chance with this car. Otherwise the car was near-perfect.

I called a friend who rebuilds treadle vacs and he reommended a return spring be added under the dash, similar to a spring on the gas pedal of older cars. In less than one hour we located and installed this spring and the brakes are now perfect. However in the process of installing the return sping, noticed that there was a small under-the-dash metal panel that was hanging down rubbing against the top of the gas pedal rod, so we are not sure if that was causing the trouble. Either way, a return spring is easy to install and just might do the trick. Let us know what you do to fix this and good luck!

Pictures of my Continental attached, which will be shown on September 18th at the Glenmoor Gathering concourse show in Canton, Ohio. See www.glenmoorgathering.com

Fred

[Ron Green]

If the brake hoses are old sometimes they will allow the brake fluid through due to the pressure when pushing on the pedal, however they won’t allow the fluid to return right away. I had a car almost catch on fire due to old front hoses that were semi collapsed on the inside.

[W_Higgins]

It's a fluid volume issue. You shouldn't need a return spring or any other assist. If your wheel cylinders are sticking open and the springs on the brake shoes can't can't squeeze them shut after you take your foot off the brake, that can be the issue -- much like the hose acting as a check valve as mentioned in the previous post.

There shouldn't be a whole lot of travel if your brake shoe adjusters are set correctly. Do you have normal pedal travel or is your pedal going to the floor each time?

[61polara]

This happened to me on a '57 Buick with power brakes on a road trip. The diaphram seal in the boster is leather. There is a cover on the top of the boster. Remove the cover and add a few drops of motor oil and move the brake pedal up and down. This should cure your problem. This is covered in the shop manual.

[NTX5467]

Seems like there's also a long spring that does into the master cylinder, in front of the master cylinder piston? If it broke, it would not push the piston back to the non-applied position, which is what the added return spring would do.

For a vacuum power booster, isn't there a reaction valve in there, which is what triggers the vacuum assist?

The issue with the rubber brake line becoming a "check valve" would probably be more related to that wheel's brakes not releasing rather than keeping the master cylinder from returning to the non-apply position. Just depends upon which way the inner layer of rubber happened to break, I suspect.

Just some thoughts,

NTX5467