RE: [Chrysler300] brakes

[christopher beilby <thelastbestgenius@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

A common trick with finding brake problem causes is to use vice grips, or as some may casll them 'lock jaw pliers' to (tempoaraily) close off, or crush just enough, each flexible rubber brake line on a car - usually there are three - one to each front wheel from the frame, and one at the rear where the brake line goes from the frame to the differential.  You first clamp all three shut, then see what pedal you have - if the pedal is great/brilliant, then that usually shows your master cylinder part is OK/good.  So if that so, you then release one at a time, to see what happens if the pedal is now crap/bad, then you should look at whatever the flexible hose you unclamped leads to.  (Unless pedal still bad with all three clamped - then it is master cylinder that is problem, so no point checking wheel yet, until figure out what up with master cylinder.)
 
It does not take much incorrect brake shoe travel (even one just one wheel/shoes) to let the brake pedal go down pretty bad, so make sure as other member has already suggested, that your shoes are set right out against brake drums correctly by the adjuster cams.  Then as others have suggested, there is the setting of the master cylinder push rod, but as they have warned, too little freeplay, or too much, is a pretty fine line to know when exactly 100% right.
 
I have a 1962 Jag E XKE Roadster that has similar master cylinder booster to the 300Cs, and luckily both it and my driver 300C have stunning brake response/feel, and both have outstanding brakes, though in case of my 300C, this likely to the semi metallic front brake shoe linings, as my other two 300Cs have far less resonsive brakes, although both never used as much, so maybe they better if more 'burnt in' with regular use.  The Jag has just new everything re cylinder rubbers, hoses, pads, and yet early XKE brakes are supposed to be dodgy, yet mine are amazing, so maybe like 300Cs, if you spend time to get pushrod adjustment re vacuum booster 'connector clearance'  right, you can get real great feel/response brakes, despite what most say cannot be without going to more modern brakes?!
 
Some cars just seem way better than other identical cars re performance, brakes, feel etc - and my belief is it can be very well worth time making sure all is as good as one can get re settings/tuning. I spent maybe a week in total time spent over some months fooling around with '300C driver' carb linkages, float settings, etc, plus as mentioned a few times here before, there is a trap with modern 'generic' 300C cup size brake rubber cups - in that ones you just buy from auto parts places are wider than factory issue - and that extra width allows lip of cup to pass over bleed/return/supply hole in wall of wheel cylinder under brake pressure, which nicks the cup at that spot, and from then on allows 'micro fluid leaks;, which cause brakes to pull erratically to one or other side under braking. Since fixing this, my driver 300C can pull up so fast it outbrakes the grip of modern quality 235 by 15 radials if one keeps pushing, and we are not talking superhuman brake pedal pushing. )And on two of my 300Cs, neither of the linkage off the firewall onto the carbs was set so all 8 throats opened - how many ever check this to see if this most basic adjustment is right? - free easy performance gain here for 20 mins work.)
 
A friend in Australia owned the only 300C convertible known here, restored it about 15 years ago.  His trimmer so poorly padded the front seat base, you sat on, felt, the spring frames. He used wrong poor shocks in the car, as could not then find correct ones.  And his motor had stock New Yorker cam & a restricted exhaust.  He was disappointed with the car. I told him fix those three things, and he would never want to get out of it, as I knew what a good correct well tuned/sorted 300C is really like for fun, and just those three simple things meant he did not have a true 300C re it ever driving like they are.  He fixed none, sold the car - boy did he sell himself short for all the hard/excellent other work he did on that car.
 
Time for me to go - message is, don't give up, ask/find out how to best fix things, get your '300 whatever it is' right, then see if it is fun you expect.  My feeling is any early genuine 300 is a car to really enjoy, so hang in there, get it right first before you modify what maybe the factory actually did pretty good if it just set right/correctly?
 
Christopher - showery wet roads today, still fun in a good collector car with good tires and a bit of grunt, and 15 inches first winter snows on our nation's few ski alps. 


To: wranderson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; lorenmorgan@xxxxxxxxx; chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx: ronstewart31@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:49:09 -0400Subject: Re: [Chrysler300] brakes




THINK YOU GOT ISSUES, BE A C300 OWNER THEN YOU WEEP. C3OO RON----- Original Message ----- From: Warren Anderson To: lorenmorgan@xxxxxxxxx ; chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 2:45 PMSubject: Re: [Chrysler300] brakesI have found through trying myself and through orthers failures that at best, rebuilding wheel cylinders and especially master cylinders is a waste of time and at best a very temporary fix. Even the tiniest cylinder discoloration in the bore and it will not seal. Got to have the correct master cylinder and wheel cylinder combo and the master cylinder push rod adjustment at the correct spec. Brake adjustment, shoe to drum clearance, is critical with all the right springs in all the right places. Brake drums out of round will also present all kinds of problems including difficulty bleeding and difficult to adjust issues. Same with shoes that do not fit the drums. Shoe lining that does not fit the drum, hits on the ends of the friction material will be a problem and not only with adjustment; brakes will grab.With the brake adjustment cams on all four wheels cranked out fully, wheels won't turn, and difficult to bleed brakes will then join the program. This procedure helps where brake drum out of round is a problem and will help with bleeding only but will not help with a proper brake adjustment.HTHWarren AndersonSedona,AZhello fellow 300 nuts/enthusiastsi am having a brake problem with my C conv.i have replaced the master cyl,brake hoses,rebuilt wheel cyls,bled brakes,bled some more,bled some more,bled some more,etc.shoes were relined.I CAN'T GET A DECENT PEDAL!!& DRIVING IT IS SCARY.i've had this car since april 59 & so have replaced brakes & master several time with no problem,but this time having a problem.any help will be appreciatedthanksloren morgan on long island n.y.[Non-text portions of this message have been removed][Non-text portions of this message have been removed] 






_________________________________________________________________
Be part of history. Take part in Australia's first e-mail archive with Email Australia.
http://emailaustralia.ninemsn.com.au

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


------------------------------------

To send a message to this group, send an email to:
Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For list server instructions, go to http://www.chrysler300club.com/yahoolist/inst.htm

For archives go to http://www.forwardlook.net/300-archive/Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chrysler300/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chrysler300/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:Chrysler300-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
    mailto:Chrysler300-fullfeatured@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    Chrysler300-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/