My Maverick is a 75 with factory power front disc brakes. I had the front wheels off the ground recently and noticed that they do not spin as easily as they should. The front brakes appear to be too tight on the rotors. Is there an adjustment somewhere to decrease the pressure held by the calipers?
Quick test for you to do... Open the bleeders (Individually) If the wheel is then easey to spin...The brake hoses are bad...If there is no change...The pistons are frozen in the bores of the calipers (time for new ones) It is entirely possible someone put a drum brk master on the car at some point. Easey to tell...Take the cover off, if both reservoirs are the same size its a drum master and may well be your problem...Good luck!!!
A drum brake M/C would not fit on there unless it was for a Mustang or other Ford equipped with power drum brakes. All Mavericks with drum brakes were non-power assist.
Thanks guys, I will try opening the bleeder screws one at a time. The master cylinder and brake booster are the proper disc brake ones for the Maverick/Comet.
I don't anyone change the mater and no the calipers are not adjustable. I think that the pistons are frozen, i would open up the bleeders and take a screwdriver and push the piston back into the caliper, it should move easy.you may get lucky and it will free it up.this is common when the car sits because of the moisture.
Did you possibly consider your wheel bearings? When those start to go bad, before they make noise, they make the wheel spin noticably slower. I say this after chasing a brake problem until the wheel bearings collapsed and the wheel fell off my truck.
Thanks everyone for the replies. Just thought I would post a follow up for anyone that stumbles across this thread. No problems with the calipers, master cylinder, brake hoses, or hubs. It appears the problem is twofold. First, the original design by Ford was not ideal, and second, upon the last pad replacement there was no grease applied to the slide grooves or retainer spring on the calipers. Once the grease was applied the calipers are no longer binding against the rotors, and the brakes seem to be working better than before.
