The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline sticking brakes, or no?

My '59 sat for months and now it feels like the brakes don't fully release. If I do a driveway only move (it's not licensed yet) forward or back, and then depress the clutch it stops as though the brakes were in contact with the drums. That is, an abrupt stop, not just the gradual loss of momentum. But when I jack up the front, and then the rear end all wheels turn freely with no resistance.

Is there some other cause? Is the hydraulic pressure not releasing quickly, but is fully released by the time I get it jacked up?

Note: Everything from the new dual MC back to the shoes and drums is new and worked fine when I did a brief drive 8 months ago. That's why, esp. here in wet Oregon, I expected rust between shoes and drums. But that doesn't fit with free rotation when jacked up.

I'm stumped, and don't want to overheat a drum & shoes if it's going to be sticking while I drive.

Support one end on jack stands, apply the brakes, release, and immediately try to turn a wheel. Ditto for the other end. It's also possible the hydro-vac (if equipped) is slow to release, so try it with the engine running as well as stopped.
Jerry

Old brakes hoses internally fail they swell up and brake down on the inside with age restricting brake fluid flow back to the MC.

Hotrod, I tried that. All four wheels turned freely. Huh???
So, what else could explain this if it's not brakes?

Note: all hard and soft lines are new.

I don't completely understand the post. Does the truck roll in neutral? Or are you still in gear with the clutch depressed? Is the parking brake cable adjusted and working? Roll back with the park brake is possible, roll forward will activate the "parking" brake(it is a leading shoe thing) if the park brake is not fully released. The effect of depressing the clutch, might be a bad throwout bearing..again I may have misread the post(my bad often). With the truck lifted, and free roll at each wheel, the shoes are not the issue. I would look at the parking brake adjustments. With a good light, and some contortion you can just see the shoes move when the parking brake is engaged and released. Let us know what you find.

The parking brake isn't connected at the wheels. I put in a new axle and need to convert to the newer connection type at the wheels. So that's not the issue.

If I put it in gear (1st or reverse), release the clutch to get forward/backward movement, and then depress the clutch the truck comes to a "braked" stop. That is, it doesn't stop b/c it loses momentum, but is stopped by some mechanical cause...as though the brake shoes were in contact with the drums.

But today's explorations show the shoes are not in contact.
Stumped.

Sounds like clutch isn't releasing fully from the flywheel. How much free play do you have in the clutch pedal?

OK, I've decided it is NOT the brakes. The resistance is felt in forward or reverse and is not slight. Significant.

My next theory: I had trouble with the axles and the shop that built my rear end while we still lived in AZ. When we got here and I drove it for the first time I had almost disastrous trouble and immediately called the AZ shop. He said two different sizes go with that rear end, he must have put the wrong axles in, and sent me the correct size (slightly longer). I did the install myself - something I was not comfortable with, but it seemed to go OK. I have not driven it since, so I'm guessing that's the source of my trouble.

Can you think of a mistake I may have made with the install that would account for this binding in F or R?

After further thought, if it was the rear axle/diff it should bind with the rear end jacked up and the wheels rotated manually, yes??
So does that point to the transmission??

Aaargh!

Update: the problem is with the T-5 I had built. Should I have expected it to come to me from the transmission shop already filled with fluid? I did assume that, it was not, and now I've got to deal with a fried tranny.

Nobody EVER ships engines, transmissions, etc. with lube inside. Shippers get VERY testy about slippery puddles in their trucks!
Jerry

Thank you for sharing your troubles. Many (me included) would tend towards keeping something like that under our hats. But then nobody learns anything that way.
Thank you again.
Carl

I'm surprised that the place that built and shipped your tranny didn't put a tag on it indicating there was no fluid in it.

Note: the tranny wasn't shipped. It was delivered via a third party who was doing some work on my '65 Falcon. I went to pick up the Falcon and got the tranny while I was there. Everything was local.