Wilwood Aero6 front right locks, nothing from left.

[k72nova]

BLUF: My front right brake locks up easily while the front left seems to be doing just about nothing, the rears are both working.

I have wildwood Aero6 brakes in the front of my ’72 Nova, I have bled the brakes repeatedly to try and fix this issue and just can’t get my brakes to lock equally or even to have the left lock at all, the car pulls pretty hard to the right when I brake. For context my front right will lock at maybe ¾ braking, it doesn’t take me slamming into them, it happens in a straight line and if I’m turning left or right.

The only thing that I can think of is that the RH side of my car sits roughly ½” lower (measured from the frame to the ground) than the LH side, I’ve made up for this by adding more preload to the RH side to lift the car that extra ½”. Would that change the weight of my car enough to affect my brakes?

My question is if not the preload, what could be causing this? Again I’ve bleed to brakes over and over and am not getting any air through my left side at all, I’ve removed the master cylinder and bench bled it again and then re-bled the brakes, checked for leaks in the line and bulging in the braided line, still nothing.

EDIT: Something to add that I forgot to mention is that I removed the pads on the LH side and cleaned them and the rotor really well, even hit them with a blow torch to see if maybe some oil had made its way onto them and while they were out I pressed the brake pedal to see if the pistons were moving, they seemed to be moving since after two full presses on the brake pedal they were about 1/8"-1/4" further out then they had been.

[matthimself456]

I don't know if this will be helpful and this is an embarrassing story but I'll tell it anyway:

Years ago I was converting a 4-wheel drum car from a single pot master cylinder to a "modern" dual master cylinder. Of course this involved separating the single hydraulic circuit into two - one for front and one for rear. As any job that involves making brake lines it took a long time and was generally not that much fun but I got it all done with good flares and sealed up tight. On the test drive it became immediately apparent that something was wrong. The left front wanted to lock up with even the tiniest application of pedal and the car would pull hard to the left. It turns out that in the constant up-and-down from leaning over the fender to crawling underneath I had somehow incorrectly traced the lines. The lines that I myself had made. I had one port of the master cylinder plumbed to a splitter that I thought went to the RF and LF. It was actually feeding the RF and the line running to the rear. The rear port of the master cylinder was plumbed directly to the left front. So I had 50% of the total fluid volume going to the left front and 17% going to each of the other wheels. They worked a lot better once I re-made the lines to the correct configuration.

[k72nova]

Oh man that's a bummer but sounds like it was an easy enough fix! That's not what is going on with mine but I hadn't even checked that so it's a good point to bring up, thanks for you input!

[k72nova]

Small update, pulled the calipers and cleaned the pistons, I noticed I somehow how the calipers on the wrong sides so I swapped them, re-bled the system and figured if it's the calipers then I'll lock up the LH side now, nope still the same issue and I'm locking up the RH tire. I think the next step is to figure out how to test the pressure at the calipers, I know they have kits for that but all of them that I've seen have really bad reviews.

[marolf101x]

Is there a restriction somewhere in the left hand side that is allowing more flow/pressure to the right hand side?

[Bad Bowtie]

Just as another checking point, have a look at the flex hose from the chassis to the caliper have seen those stock rubber hoses go bad giving headaches in troubleshooting. Probably not an issue if you used approved steel braided brake hose.

BB

[k72nova]

Is there a restriction somewhere in the left hand side that is allowing more flow/pressure to the right hand side?

I just got my brake pressure gauges today and my pressure is close on both sides, wothing 30 psi at around 800, I'm not 100% sure if that's just the variance in the gauges or not. One gauge is a percentage off of the other. I also don't know if 30psi is enough of a difference to matter.



Just as another checking point, have a look at the flex hose from the chassis to the caliper have seen those stock rubber hoses go bad giving headaches in troubleshooting. Probably not an issue if you used approved steel braided brake hose.

BB

Good call, I did check those and they're all good, I have the braided lines.

[dontlifttoshift]

Measure pistons on both calipers. Inside and outside. I bet the right caliper is bigger.

There are 3 piston areas available for that caliper

4.04 pistons 1.12, 1.12, and 1.62 This is the one that should have been in your kit.

5.40 pistons 1.38,1.38, and 1.75

6.52 pistons 1.62, 1.62, and 1.75



***had this happen on a hot rod once. Dynalites at all four corners. One front had 1.38 pistons and the other had 1.75 pistons.