O.T. olds.

[Roy in georgia]

I am sure someone knows, MY 86 olds locks the left rear wheel from time to time and I do not know why. A friend of mine says his chevy. celebrity does the same thing and so did his wife's so this could be a common problem.
Thanks in advanced, Roy

 

[landlord7012]

sounds like a chunk of brake lining floating around in the drum

ll

 

[Anonymous-0]

Sticky, shot brake cylinder.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Cheeck the brake on the opposite side , it may be frozen orotherwize inoperative, and causing your brakkes to operate unevenly. hph,gh

 

[Janicholson]

Pull it apart, it is in need of those components that are:
Leaky cylinders
Bent struts
Weak springs
Thin linings
Excess brake dust (don't breath it)
Cracked drum
Over adjusting adjuster
leaky axle seal
And other opportunities for a complex system to fail.
I am not tearing into you, it is just complex (and broken) don't drive it. JimN

 

[Old Ford Mechanic]

Grease or brake fluid.One or both is leaking.

 

[Iowa_tire_guy]

I assume you mean it does this when you are stepping on the brake and not just driving down the street. I also assume you have brake drums on the rear and not disk brakes. Then yes check the brake components and clean the dust out. If the shoe seems sticky then pull back the rubber boot over the wheel cylinder to see if fluid runs out. Check both sides of the cylinder. Do this anyhow even if it seems all dry. If everything appears in order and the cylinder is not leaking then it would be the brake drum is egg shaped. Need to replace or have turned on a brake lathe.

 

[John M]

The rubber brake line is bad, wifes old Celebrity did it and it was the line.

 

[Roy in georgia]

these are all things I have thought of just thought maybe there was a common problem here I plan on doing a complete brake job (front and rear) in the next couple of weeks. Most of the time they work fine just on occasion the left rear will lock up when applying gentle pressure on the petal thanks to all who offered their advise in this matter I,ll let you all know what I find.
respectfully, Roy

 

[bradk]

I'm gonna assume that the car in question is a Ciera since the car is being compared to a Celebrity as they are both A bodies.

Notorious problem with these.Everything has to be perfect for the rears to work properly on these cars due to being too light in the rear.

Brake linings must be absolutely dry of brake fluid,no excessive brake dust buildup,and shoes must be adjusted to have slight drag.

Check to see if brake fluid is present.Even shoes that are damp with fluid from a leaking wheel cylinder will lock up. ~brad

 

[old art]

check the emergency brake cable that it is not holding on a little bit .BTDT . take the drun off and the shoes shuld be tight to the onchor pin on top. make sure the cable move's very easyto come back.

 

[Roy in georgia]

bradk
This is the kind of stuff I was looking for and by you knowing it was an A body by the celebrity comparison makes me think you are closest to the problem and probably with experience in the matter. front brakes just hit wear indicators and I need to check the rear to see if they need repair just trying to gather ideas before I start maybe next week. This car has only 66000 miles on it and gets around 28mpg I paid $800 for it and because it sat in sister-in-laws back yard for 2 years without antifreeze it broke a head bolt head job and its fine been driving it for 4000 miles so far she gave me $200 back to pay for the repairs thankful for that! I think it will last for some time did the work myself and asked the machine shop guy to verify the mileage on head he said
"not many" paid me $47 after I paid for shave and parts out of the $200. Again thanks to all who replied and I will repost results next week or so.
Roy

 

[Patrick Martin]

Brake issues.

 

[Patrick Martin]

OR warped rotor

 

[Roy in georgia]

(quoted from post at 15:14:02 09/04/07) I am sure someone knows, MY 86 olds locks the left rear wheel from time to time and I do not know why. A friend of mine says his chevy. celebrity does the same thing and so did his wife's so this could be a common problem.
Thanks in advanced, Roy

well, I never let y'all know what the problem was it was a blown wheel cylinder that caused the brake dust to become sticky and lock the wheel down. I thought the brake fluid would make it slick and not work at all