Front brakes dragging

[upf7flyr]

All new brakes, calipers, (with bolts), , rotors, pads, master cylinder, and booster and both 'soft' brake lines, and front brakes are dragging. Why? What did I do wrong? Could the Anti lock 'RWAL' valve be 'stuck'? Or the 'Combination valve' ? I lifted both front wheels off the ground and could barely turn the wheels. I, long ago, pulled the Anti-Lock fuse, (they almost got me in a wreck), but that shouldn't matter..?? All advice is welcome.

 

[Matt42]

I am going to make some wild guesses here.

• If the master cylinder is a rebuilt or a remanufactured, is it the correct one? This is acting like there is a check valve installed someplace in the front brake lines. Master cylinders for front drum brakes had check valves or some sort of anti-backflow device to account for brake shoe wear.
  
• Similar question for the calipers. Rebuilt or new? It is possible--not likely--that the bores are so oversize that the cylinders have cocked in the bores and are sticking.
  
• I'm assuming that you put some brake lube on the caliper slide bolts. Permatex makes some excellent purple goo. Not having lube on the slide bolts can make things stick.
  
• I am assuming that you bled the brakes. Very strange things can happen if the bleeding (or not bleeding) goes awry. The master cylinder piston can get pushed too far forward, causing the front brakes to drag or even lock up. This can happen if the bleeding begins with the rear wheels full of brake fluid, while the front brake calipers are empty of fluid. (It has never happened to me, but I always bleed the empty cylinder axle first, then the axle farthest away, then return.)
  
• I have no experience with the combination valve on my 1996 giving a problem. However, on a 1970s car I had (in the 1970s), the analogous valve was called a proportioning valve. If brakes were bled without pulling a center pin on that valve, all sorts of mayhem could--and did--result. So it is possible that a piston on the proportioning valve may have moved out of place. But again, I have no experience with that.
  
• Try this: get all 4 wheels off the ground. With the transmission in neutral, turn the rear wheels without the parking brake or the service brakes on. Then turn the rear wheels while pushing on with the service brake pedal. Do the rear brakes do anything?
• Do you have the factory TSM?

These are just guesses. Maybe somebody else will have more ideas.

 

[upf7flyr]

Strange.. after driving it a bit more, it seems better. After bleeding all the new stuff, I only drove it a few feet and lightly used brakes, in the yard to turn it around.. But Now after driving it a bit, everything seems to be better. Jacking the fronts off the ground again and now the wheels turn with light drag. Perhaps that Combination valve was out of whack, but fixed itself?.. The fronts were really stiff before. I'm a bit baffled, but it's ok now, I guess. Thanks for all the advice.