Brakes & Steering

[LoudPedal74]

My name is Steve, I'm a new member here, day 1. New to Model As, but not new to mechanicals/electrical troubleshooting and repair. Retired USAF aircraft technician, for F-15s. I've also been a car guy all my life, 99% doing my own maintenance. Always wanting an early Ford, 3 months ago I acquired a 31 Deluxe rumble seat Roadster in Washington Blue with 6 cream wheels. The car's story is that it was restored 40 years ago, 8K miles on the clock since then. Paint cracks & checking, a few chips but all there and in very presentable driver condition. A new Classtique cloth top in the box was included with the car. I love it!

Of course, immediately upon buying the A, I became incredibly busy otherwise. Between that and spring weather there hasn't been much time for maintenance.

When I got the car, it had a slight brake pulsing which seemed to come from the front end while braking. I suspected a rusty drum since over a short time it reduced, but not to the point where it has entirely gone away. I tried to drive it daily for the first 2 months. Short trips just for learning about it and trying to get the car sorted. Now, I wish I had pulled off the front wheels and looked at the brakes. This has become today's big deal of a problem and the main reason for this post.

The car is in really good mechanical condition. "Sorting" didn't require much after all, or so I thought. I had a little trouble early on with the starter switch shifting slightly and causing a short (quickly rectified with a gasket kit). When I finally ventured out a bit further than the neighborhood, a clogged radiator made its presence known during a 45-50mph cruise to a car show (called off due to projected rain).

About a month ago, the A developed an intermittent ignition problem. Hard starting, backfiring, etc. sometimes it would run fine for a while then just quit. I ran through all the usual suspects: timing setup check, debris in the gas (cleaned the filter screens and shortened the fuel line at the compression fitting and thought that fixed it but it came back), gas cap, ignition voltages/grounds/open-short checked good, replaced all tune-up parts one at a time and still had the problem. Rebuilt the carb, which was really spotless inside, aside from a slight dusting of rust in the bowl. No help from all of that. Turned out to be the power wire under the points plate had mild corrosion in the strands under the insulation, about an inch away from the points connection (but not a break!). So that's now fixed, but the car sat for the month until yesterday when the wire repair fixed the problem. I had it out around the neighborhood a few times yesterday and everything was fine, it ran very well.

This morning, I decided to head out to Cars & Coffee. I noticed right away that the pulsating brake was very pronounced. I chalked it up to sitting for a month. It wasn't making any noise and I thought it just might need to be driven a little. 2 intersections away from home, and as I pulled up to a stop sign and decellerating in 2nd while braking, the car made 3 loud bangs in succession. So loud, I thought they were backfires, but if so, they were bad ones. I could feel it through the whole car, like it was stopping the drivetrain or something. I thought I might have disturbed the points cam somehow while repairing the wire and/or changing the points and condenser. (I had marked everything prior to disassembly, and put it all back as it was).

I decided to turn around for home. It happened again at the next turn, this time with the clutch depressed. The steering is now very stiff on center and will not return to straight on its own. Inspecting the front suspension, the control arm steering rod is perfectly centered under the brake bellcrank that's part of the shock absorber connection to the axle, and does not appear to touch anything as it swings (no interference). I don't see anything obviously broken/worn in the front axle or steering. It doesn't make any noise at all, except if I brake.


I haven't taken it apart yet. I expect everything will just fall out when I pull the drum off, a badly cracked or at least badly gouged drum. I think that's going to be the easy part. It's the steering I'm concerned about. Something is abruptly stopping the road wheel when the pedal is pushed. If the left front brake is broken somehow and causing this bang, I'm thinking something in the steering/suspension must be damaged from the violent sudden jam of the brake. I was maybe doing 5mph when I braked for the stop sign. There was no jolt through the steering wheel when it banged, which is why I thought it was a backfire. I got it home using only the e-brake.

Where to start? I have zero straight axle experience. Anyone had a brake jam up like this and affected the steering? Anyone experienced steering damage after hitting a curb, or something similar?

Thanks