Winter is coming and the Elky has been put away until next spring, but I have a problem that maybe someone can give me an idea.

When I finished redoing my Elky 3 years ago I put in new brake pads, rotors, calipers, and hoses. I did not replace rear drums. We bled the brakes by pumping the brake pedal. I do not have a soft pedal, but my stopping power is not good. I applied the brakes at a about 40 MPH and was surprised how bad the brakes held. All of the brake parts are from NAPA, but they are there best quality so they should be good.
Does anyone have any thoughts on where to start to make the brakes better.
Thanks for any thoughts
elamott

A few things could be the problem. The booster behind the master cylinder could be the problem. Make sure the vacuum hose that runs to it is OK. You could disconnect the vacuum hose & plug it, then try the brakes without the booster, to find out if it's actually helping.....

If you haven't checked the rear drum brakes, it's a good time to get in there. Is the pedal up where it should be ? or is it down more than normal ? Low pedal is usually the adjustment of the rear shoes. If the rear brakes need help, a new hardware kit for the rear brakes isn't much money & saves having to fool with the old rusty hardware.

Just some ideas .......

Everything in the rear is new except the drums. They were just cleaned. I did not adjust the rear. I usually let the auto adjust do it. I could check that. The pedal is not at the top but it feels normal.
elamott

I've never had a problem with the proportioning valve, but have read where some folks have. Did you change that also ? Maybe it's worth a replacement if everything else has been replaced .......

The rears should adjust on their own as you stop (complete stop) in reverse before putting it in dr or letting out the clutch. If they are adjusted ok, then I would suspect the brake booster. Don't know how long they last, but they could go bad or the vacuum is not getting to it.

How did you do the rears? Did you adjust the shoes so that the drums just fit over them snug? Or did you leave the self adjusters all the way screwed in?
Yeah the rears are self adjusting but you at least need to titghen up the shoes so that the drums just fit over them. Even doing this will give you a low pedal and a not so good feeling especialy if you need to hit 'em hard in a panic. Drum brakes are easy enough to adjust can't take more than 5-10 minutes.

the auto adjuster takes too long to finally get them there. do as Bobby suggested and adjust them, then let the auto adjuster take care of the slow gradual wear.

Thanks everyone. This gives me some things to look at when I pull it back out in the spring.
elamott