Hey guys, so had a question about the '56. The brakes are extremely touchy. Like barely applying pressure to the brake pedal will immediately make the brakes grab hard and pull to the left a bit. Its dangerous almost - if you tap them at all they will grab super hard. then the pedal will go to the floor. Anyway, I have heard about a "proportioning valve" for these power brakes. What is it and where is it located? I had the car up on a lift today having dual flowmaster 40's put on (which sound awesome btw!), and looked at all the drums, nothing is leaking at all - doesn't look like any of the cylinders are shot. So where is the brake master cylinder on this car - I cant seem to find it? Should I start by bleeding the brakes? Anyone had trouble like this before? Also I was thinking about removing that huge air cleaner on there. Can you replace it with a regular air filter instead of the stock one with the "oil bath"? Will that affect the carb at all - and if so can I just adjust the mixture screw? Also (sorry last question) - does anyone have a 4 barrel carb that will work on this engine (its the 317 v8)? Thanks for the help!
If it's power brakes, then the fluid resivoir is in front of the power brake booster unit. Look low on the firewall below the "black box" heater controls. As for the trouble I have seen this before with those big front 12 inch drums. Pontiac built most of their stopping power into the front and if you have wear, it will grab and jerk pretty hard.
That's a lot of questions and I hate typing - PM me for my phone number and I would be gald to discuss (I just finished the brakes on my 55 Pontiac Wagon)
The brake master cylinder is down low on the drivers side of the engine compartment.. like SneakyJane says... find the heater box and go down! If your car has power steering, you;ll see the power steering contraption and hoses... the master cylinder is directly underneath that. It's a huge pain to get to, guaranteed to make your knuckles bleed. I took off the air cleaner on my car, and have actually been running without a filter at all. I've be procrastinating on getting another air filter. ALso, when I bled the brakes on my car I found that it was impossible to loosen the bleeder valve thing (I'm doped up on pain meds and my brain isn't quite up to par) on the passenger side rear wheel. With the way everything was laid out, I couldnt physically get a wrench or socket on the damn thing so I only bled 3 out of 4 wheels.
Ok, I think I have a general idea of where to locate that master cylinder. I'm going to bleed them this weekend and see if that helps, if it doesn't then it looks like I'll have to start tracking down some new brake shoes, and maybe getting those drums turned. I was going to pull off that huge air cleaner just to see what kind of shape its in - how do you change the filter in there? Or is there even a filter? I've never had one with the oil bath filter, so I'm not really sure how it works. just wanted to put a regular air cleaner on there so I can see what kind of shape its in. I'll probably also do an oil change too just so I have a good baseline. Anyone know where to track down brake parts and a 4 bbl carb? Thanks for the help guys, and Joe I emailed you back - I'll probably be giving you a call before I tear into this.
For my 55 wagon mechanical parts Kantor in NJ had every thing I needed. For the manifold and carb I think it will be beg borrow or steal!
Kanter would be source for brake parts, but I found a guy on ebay who is a wholesaler for them, basically their catalog at a discount, some stuff even comes from their warehouse. Search falconglobal on ebay, I had good luck dealing with him. You will have to look far and wide for a 4bbl intake and carb. Remember if you have a Hydramatic you will need all that linkage for the 4bbl carb.
Just cause the wheel cylinders aren't leaking doesn't mean they are good, they could be sticking or stuck in the bore, don't overlook the brake hoses also. There is a disc brake kit from Scarebird that also converts over to tapered bearings as well, but cant use the stock wheels.
If you have the stock factory power brakes [Treadle Vac style I believe] them suckers are very touchy, much more so the modern systems. Tape a raw egg on the brake pedal !! LOL Pulling can be from leakage of W/B grease or brake fluid, or one side slightly out of adjustment or even someone replacing only one side of the brake shoes. Pull the front wheels for a look see first.
when I did my brakes I had the shoes relined at a local shop, and had the drums turned and shoes "arced" to match all by the same guy, got wheel cylinder kits and hoses from the local NAPA, was worth the effort as it now stops great and straight. Only issue was finding a good set of drums because I am too cheep to buy the repos...ended up buying a whole nuther car...
Try the hamber rustynewyorker, he had a 56 factory cast iron intake last year. Don't know if he still has it or not. Or are you hunting an aftermarket intake?
Thanks for all the help. I'm going to start by bleeding them tonight and see if it helps, if not then I'll pull the drums and see what it looks like. Sneakyjane - not looking for anything in particular, was just wondering how hard it would be swap out for a 4 barrel, im not set on anything as it runs just fine right now. Can anyone comment on removing that air cleaner? Can I replace it with a regular filter, or if not - how do I change the oil in there, or do I even need to? Also, where is the dipstick to check the trans fluid? And does anyone know how many quarts of oil to use when changing it? Can I find a filter just at Napa? Thanks!
The oil bath air cleaner is held on with a band clamp around the air horn, there is no provision for a carb stud for a newer paper filter setup. You can just clean the unit with kerosene and put fresh oil in the bottom. Trans dipstick is on the pass. side behind the exhaust manifold.If its the later 56 trans when they added park feature to the trans ,the filter is a wire sceen you can just clean. The brakes sound like a sticking wheel cylinder. Hope this helps
Front brakes pulling could be one or more of these: Contaminated linings Drum out of round. Improperly adjusted wheel bearings. Damaged, crimped or blocked hose or line. Malfunctioning wheel cylinder. Improperly adjusted brakes. Damaged, improper or malfunctioning brake hardware. Etc. You are going to have to get in there to inspect each component in the system. Start with the simplest aspect and work through them to the more arcane (expensive) possibilities. It's only 52 years old what could possibly be wrong with it?
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