Pulls to right when braking

[FiatRunner]

Hello all,

I bought my ‘74 Spider a couple weeks ago, and it always has pulled to the right very slightly when braking. I didn’t think much of it. However, I greased the ball joints yesterday because they were squeaking and were difficult to turn, and now it steers much easier and the squeak is no longer. But when I hit the brakes after greasing them, it pulled to the right, and hard.

So I put the car on the lift, checked the play in the ball joints, steering linkages, wheel bearings, and checked the brake pads to see if they were wearing evenly, and everything seemed completely normal.

I have no idea what it could be. Has anyone else experienced this? My suspension is completely stock, aside from 15 inch wheels and some 205/50 tires.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Has anyone else experienced this?

Yes. For a car to pull hard to one side when braking, the cause is almost always a stuck front brake caliper (on the opposite side to where it pulls) or air in the brake lines to the front.

As you probably have guessed, the problem was likely there all along, but freeing up your front suspension just made it much more evident.

Since you just bought the car, I'd check the entire braking system, and there are some parts that should be replaced no matter what. At a minimum, I'd bleed the brakes and raise each wheel off the ground to verify that the braking action is about the same when someone else is very lightly pressing on the pedal. All four wheels should start to get harder to turn after about an inch of brake pedal travel.

-Bryan

[FiatRunner]

I’ll make sure to check out the brakes soon.

Every single part in the entire braking system was replaced 10,000 miles ago, so I don’t think it is something major.

I had to stop very quickly due to an accident on the freeway today, and I could feel the right front wheel lock up, but the left didn’t lock up at all. Later, in a safe and controlled area, I tried to get both front wheels to lock up, and it required lots of force and pedal travel for the left wheel to lock.

I will check today if there is air in the lines on the left side, or if one of the calipers is stuck.

Thanks for the help!

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Very good, let us know what you find out. If you can lock up one or both of the front wheels on smooth dry pavement, that's doing pretty good as they are hard to lock up. Unless you just have really cheap tires!!

-Bryan

[FiatRunner]

This evening I was able to take a look at the front brakes… sure enough, there was air in the lines on the left side.

It still pulls to the right a little, but much less than before. I typically rest my left hand on the wheel when I am driving, and the pull is so minimal that I can just leave my hand there and it will stay straight. I am no longer worried about it.

Also, I think I was able to lock up the front wheels because it was a bit cold this morning, about 39°F when I was doing my testing. Later in the day, it was 65° and the sun was shining, and I wasn’t able to get the front wheels to lock.

I also replaced the shifter socket and spring today, and it made a world of difference. Took me about an hour and a half, and I’d 100% recommend it.

I appreciate the help! Next up is electrical work. Ugh.

[DieselSpider]

Just be sure that the tire pressures and tread wear are equal before going too crazy. Also you need to verify that all the sliding parts between the caliper and its mounts are free of rust, corrosion or galling and are properly lubricated with a high quality brake grease. Due to the design of the calipers used on our cars its even more critical to keep up on the 2 year flushes and renewing of the grease on the caliper mounts and slides perhaps upping it to a 1 year schedule on seldom used vehicles.

Also check out Eli's Suspension Primer at MiraFiori as there are torque specs that one is wise to preform at every oil change to ensure the front end alignment is less likely to go out of spec as quickly: https://www.mirafiori.com/124susp/

[FiatRunner]

I took a brief look at many of the bushings/joints when I had the car in the air a yesterday, but I’ll make sure to do a full inspection as soon as I can. It looked pretty good, but I didn’t look super closely.

The brakes look very much brand new, and both front calipers seemed to move freely, but I’ll do a more thorough inspection soon.

I appreciate your insight, and I’ll make sure to check out that link.

[TX82FIAT]

I've read someplace that a slight braking to the right is normal. The reasoning, as I recall (dangerous assumption) was that a driver only car has more weight on the drivers side when braking and therefore the side with less weight will brake slightly quicker than the side with more weight/inertia.

[FiatRunner]

a driver only car has more weight on the drivers side when braking and therefore the side with less weight will brake slightly quicker than the side with more weight/inertia.

I was wondering about this. I am not a large person at all, so I don't think there would be too much of a difference, but I can feel that the car drives differently when I have a passenger or two with me. (yes, I actually do use the backseat once in a while) I'll try and put some weight on one side or another, and see what happens.

[DieselSpider]

Also don't discount alignment and thrust line since if the rear end is not tracking straight it can kick out off to the side.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Lots of good advice so far. My only additional comment is that, if the front brakes have been "unbalanced" for quite some time, there could be unequal component wear between left and right, and this includes not only brake parts but suspension parts. Since the pulling appears slight at this point I'd put some mileage on the car and see if things improve. Perhaps a hundred miles or so.

It also wouldn't hurt to bleed the brakes again at that point, as some air bubbles are really good at persisting in the lines despite efforts to flush them out. This seems more a problem with the rear calipers, but it does happen sometimes on the front.

-Bryan

[FiatRunner]

I appreciate the advice from everyone!

The car is currently my daily driver, so I’ll be putting a decent amount of miles on it in the next couple weeks. I’ll see how well it drives once I get 100 or 150 miles or so on it, but it’s getting cold so it might not be very long before I have to put it away. If it stays warm long enough, I’ll make sure to bleed them again too.

As for the unequal wear on brake and suspension parts, the brake pads seemed to be about the same thickness, with plenty of pad left. I won’t get a chance to put the car on a lift until next week, but when I do I’m going to make certain that the control arm bushings are good too.

[FiatRunner]

Update on the pull/suspension issues.

I had the wheels/tires off of the car because I wanted to do a very extensive detail before I put it into storage. When I had the right front wheel off, I noticed that the rubber boot on the tie rod end was torn. I looked a bit closer, and the rubber was stiff, old, and disintegrating quickly. I could just barely see into the inside of the joint, and it was rusty and dirty. There was some play in it as well.

For now, I am going to assume that this was the cause of the pull to the right. I will be replacing all of the steering linkage components over the winter, so hopefully this will be the fix. Any advice for replacing the linkages? I was going to buy the complete set (minus idler box) from AR.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Yes, this might be the cause of the pulling to the right. If steering components are loose, then the wheels can "shift" as you apply the brakes and the car pulls to one side or the other.

Is this the kit you're planning on buying?
https://autoricambi.us/steering-linkage ... 5-save-10/

Pretty straightforward, and a few thoughts:
1. How are your ball joints? Time to replace those as well? What about control arm bushings? These are much more work to replace.
2. Keep right and left sides (and inner/outer) of the tie-rod ends separate, as some have regular threads and some are reverse threads.
3. You'll need a front end alignment after you're done. Some of us have managed to do a reasonable job with the toe-in alignment at home, but if you're unsure of the history of the car, it's better to have a shop do it. Find a shop that knows these older cars, though, as there are some peculiarities about them.

-Bryan

[FiatRunner]

Yup, that's exactly the kit I was gonna buy.

As for the ball joints and control arm bushings, they all look to be in good condition. The car only has 28k miles and it's never been driven in snow or ice, so everything is rust-free and in good condition. All of the components look to be factory.

I briefly considered buying new control arms with ball joints and bushings installed, but I'd rather not spend the money unless it needs it. Don't fix what ain't broke.

As for the alignment, what peculiarities are there? Just wondering, I'll probably still take it to a shop anyway.