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frozen brake pads

N nazgulMember
no.1965 made it to it's new home late yesterday evening, and in retaliation for the climate change from arizona-it killed it's battery which was resurrected by an overnight charge. in addition 1965 asked to be covered with a blanket for the night because it was used to arizona warmth and not chicago cold.

so, after a nice warm up today, gotta take the car for a drive. after about 10 miles of typical urban driving, something started feeling funny and shortly, the car just stopped-the front disk pads were locked up, disks hot as hell, and wheels warm enough to fry eggs on. after the disks cooled down (about 20 minutes of standing in the righthand lane on a busy 4 lane state highway), they loosened up and the car was driven home (about a mile) and the pads locked up again in the driveway. another cool down, and into the garage we went.

this vehicle had substantial work done on it in the last year by the prior owner who was/is a member of this forum. also, i had gone to arizona and driven the car prior to purchase for 20-30 miles with no problems.

helpp!!!!, some troubleshooting ideas would be really appreciated.

nazgul
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lf-tp2511lf-tp2511Member
First the obvious - could you be resting your foot on the brake pedal, new car, small foot well and all that?

If not, has 1965 had a recent brake MC replacement?

Sometimes such a change over winds up with a piston rod being too long - the rod leaving the booster and pushing in the MC piston. When things warm up, things get a bit too long and your brakes are now in the 'on' position without you moving the pedal... voila - heat and locked brakes.

Easy basic check is wait for a cool car and pull the MC free of the booster-don't pull it all the way off or undo any lines, just unbolt it and pull it away. If pushing it back to the booster mounting flange requires a compression of any sort, things are probably too long.

Some rods are adjustable, others will need cutting/filing to a shorter length.

Check this out first.

Next is dirty, sticky calipers and that fix is more of a pain.

Larry
D DannyOcean (Guest)
quote:
Originally posted by nazgul:
no.1965 made it to it's new home late yesterday evening, and in retaliation for the climate change from arizona-it killed it's battery which was resurrected by an overnight charge. in addition 1965 asked to be covered with a blanket for the night because it was used to arizona warmth and not chicago cold.

so, after a nice warm up today, gotta take the car for a drive. after about 10 miles of typical urban driving, something started feeling funny and shortly, the car just stopped-the front disk pads were locked up, disks hot as hell, and wheels warm enough to fry eggs on. after the disks cooled down (about 20 minutes of standing in the righthand lane on a busy 4 lane state highway), they loosened up and the car was driven home (about a mile) and the pads locked up again in the driveway. another cool down, and into the garage we went.

this vehicle had substantial work done on it in the last year by the prior owner who was/is a member of this forum. also, i had gone to arizona and driven the car prior to purchase for 20-30 miles with no problems.

helpp!!!!, some troubleshooting ideas would be really appreciated.

nazgul


I'm not a Pantera brake expert (yet), but it sounds like the brake pistons are seizing in the calipers. If the car sat for a length of time, the brake fluid could have retained water and caused corrosion/contamination, which in turn, does bad things to calipers. I would remove the calipers and examine the bores in which the pistons ride.

Also, the brake pedal may not be returning fully. I'm not sure on these cars how that feature operates.

Examine/rebuild/replace the calipers, flush all the old brake fluid out and re-fill with DOT-4 or DOT-5. Do a good bleed (using a pressure-bleeder if available) and you should be good to go.

Hopefully, someone with more experience (George Pence, cough, cough) will chime in and fill in the details I left out.
joulesjoules"Racing is Life, anything before or after is just waiting" - Steve McQueen
When I first got #7024 I had similar symptons on one front wheel, but fortunately without complete lock up. On stripping the caliper I found the piston partially seized/rusted in the caliper and hence the brake pad was continually binding. It prompted me to go through the whole brake system, refresh the calipers and use new brake fluid.
N nazgulMember
much thanks for the responses

don't think i was riding the brake pedal by mistake.

last summer the mc was replaced, the auto was really not used much since then. so, if it has an adjustable rod, maybe the adjusting nut worked loose. looks like the first sunday of ownership will be the first sunday of repair.

hope it's not water in the lines

i'll post what happens

nazgul
lf-tp2511lf-tp2511Member
quote:
looks like the first sunday of ownership will be the first sunday of repair.

Ah, welcome the Pantera ownership land of 'what shall I fix this month?"

Like any 25 year old car, these can be dialed in; it just takes time and dedication, and the help of friends on this forum can't hurt either.

Keep us informed on what you find.

Vendors do have caliper rebuild kits if needed.

Larry
N nazgulMember
it appears that the cause of the brakes locking up was the piston rod was too long by about 3/8". this was the first cause suggested in this forum, but i was reluctant to follow it, did it and then rode the brakes hard and also put it through some panic stops and all seems fine.

puzzlement exists because i had driven the car previously, the prior owner had driven it and the mechanic who had replaced the m/c and rebuilt the calipers had test driven the car and the brakes worked fine.

although i can not put a finger on the cause for the brake lockup, i tend to believe part of the reason is temperature related, the car came from a hot/warm enviornment to the frigid midwest. that is the only variable that changed.

well, now it's time to deceide whether to fix the headlight lift mechanism or the turn signals, or the seat back or ...... a virtual smorgasbord of choices!!!!!

thanks for the responses, i hope soon i will be able to contribute to the forum in a useful way.

nazgul
J JHarris (Guest)
I had the same thing happen on my Porsche 930 and I went through all of the normal commom sense fixes and nothing worked. It turned out my brake hoses were old and was holding pressure when I applied the brakes and it would very slowly release! It was driving me nuts!!! So it might be something easy as the hoses.
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