Classic/Antique Car Repair: Brakes, brake hoses, lifetime warr

Question
Hi, I have a 69 mustang conv. with a 302. while braking, the car would pull to one side, upon jacking up the car,I found the front drivers side wheel would not spin, I removed the caliper, and the wheel/rotor would spin,thinking the piston was siezed, and finding it fairly inexpensive to replace(with a lifetime warr)intead of repairing the old,I bought 2 new front calipers, Installed them, bled the brakes as well as one person by himself can,I test drove and found that the same wheel was stll "locking up" I am wondering why the piston will not retract...even on the new caliper..please let me know what you think..thanks, Ron

Answer
You probably should see a professional brake man with this, because it can be quite dangerous.  If I had to make a guess, I'd guess the hydraulic hose on the offending wheel is bad, but there are many other possibilities too.  Since the brake hose is cheap, you could try changing it (change all three while you're at it, if one is failing the others will be close behind), then re-bleed the system and see if the problem is cures.

If you're wondering how a brake hose can do this, the explanation is that hoses often fail in such a way that the fluid will go out throught the hose to apply the brake, because there is humungous pressure behind it, but the fluid will not return to the master cylinder as well, because of restriction in the hose and much lower pressure, thus leaving that brake on all the time, causing it to overheat and grab.   Strangely enough, this is a very common failure mode for brake hoses.

But I say again, there are many other possible causes, and I think if this doesn't cure it, you should take it to a brake shop (stay away from the chains - find a privately owned shop with gray haired mechanics that has been there for 20 years!) and let them earn their pay.

Dick.