Pulling to left when braking

[Kenny]

OK when breaking (harder) the car pulls to the left. I have checked the brakes and disks and they are fine. So process of elimination.

Track Rod is bent (not badly) cause ?
Bushes on the piece of metal (d'ont know the name) that attaches to the chassis and wraps around under the axle seems to have some play.

Any thoughts ?

Damian

[muddyweb]

Do you have brake drums on the back ?  An imbalance in braking here would have an effect.   It's not uncommon for the adjusters to get siezed up.

Check your tyre pressures, a difference here will cause problems.

Does the steering wheel pull, or just the vehicle ?

The bushes in the front radius arms might have an effect, but they would need to be fairly well worn in order to cause a lot of pull.

[gordonkerr]

How much of the braking system did you check?

When I had this problem on my last 90 it turned out that, on one of my green lane runs, I had somehow mananged to partly squash one of the copper brake pipes. This effect was not noticeable under 'normal' braking but if I braked hard less effort was applied on the side where the pipe was squashed and so less braking on that side. So in your case, pulling to the left, if ths was the problem you'd need to look for a squashed or bent pipe on the right.

[Kenny]

Thanks for your responses.

Yes the wheel does pull as I manage to control the car.

As to checking the braking system I only checked the front left pads and disc.

The rear does have drums.

Damian

[muddyweb]

OK... if the wheel is pulling, then it's more likely to be the front than the rear brakes.

Check both tyre pressures, and pads / discs on both sides.

You might also want to check that your calipers are working properly and there are no stuck pistons...   With one caliper off at a time, and the help of a friend get them to GENTLY push the pedal down.    The pistons should move inwards.  Hold the ones that move first and the others should start to move.  

All the pistons should move out smoothly.

Check both sides, and have a look for any obvious leaks around the pistons.

Once the pedal is back up, push all the pistons back in... it's tricky as you need to do them all at once.  (an extra pair of hands may be required here too)

Hope this helps.