Rolling car help

Car is a 68 Dodge dart drag car. Stock front suspension.dana rear . Car has always been hard to roll or push.what to check to free up? Car has four wheel disc brakes. Small block auto. Just thinking before race season comes around.

I would check the drag on the brakes. Race brakes usually back off so there is no drag but it scares the heck out of you to drive it normal because a light touch on the pedal doesn't do much. Also the wheel bearings to make sure the wheels spin freely.

I also have a 68 dart with stock front and Dana rear. Big Block / 727. The car was impossible to roll with the trans in it. Once I removed that, the car rolled free. I am sure it is a non-rollerized set up in the trans. Is this common? Might be your problem as well.

...toe in,
...rebuild calipers

Does the rear have a spool in it ?

I can easily push my car in the staging lanes by myself with a non rollerized 727 in neutral.

With a spool, though, it is exceedingly difficult to go around corners!

Check the driveshaft pinion angle.

If the rear is an 8 3/4 with a spool check the housing for straightness. A slight bend and the car is very hard to push.

If the transmission and driveshaft are in the car, a galled transmission rear support makes a car hard to push

Do a process of elimination... pull the drive shaft first then try.. then pull the brake pads and try

What master cylinder is in the car?
If it is a stock looking one with dual equal size reservoirs it may still have the residual valves in it, they hold 10lbs. pressure for stock drum brakes and that pressure will hold the pads against the rotors
You can back off one of the hard lines and if it has pressure on it and drips out that is the problem
You can remove them by using a #8 self tapping screw in the brass flare that is press into the master cylinder to hold the tiny residual valves wit the springs on the ends, remove them and reinstall the flares and tighten them up hard enough to make them flare out again so they stay in place so they sealed up against the M.C.

Who's disc brakes? Wilwood???

Exactly. There are only a few things it can be so start with the obvious and move to the more difficult. Tire pressure is the first thing to check, toe in can be checked. pulling the driveshaft is the next step. Put the car in the air and pull the wheels and spin the rotors by hand. Shouldn't take more than an hour or two in the shop to figure it out.

Will start with driveshaft out. Car has aerospace brake and they back off. Just looking for a little something. Thanks everyone

The last car I had was hard to push. What I found to be the problem was the steering rack. There was a plastic bushing on the passenger side of the rack that held the rack gear. It had broken & allowed the passenger side front wheel to flop around. I made a replacement bushing from aluminum.

Let me state the obvious. Is the car square? Not Dog tracking? Way back in the 70''s at a Mopar seminar they talked about the same thing. Next thing would be the weak 8 3/4 housing.

Spool ? ... like has been said - that can be a bummer !

If the tires are not matched perfectly it can be a PITA !

And it’s a double PITA on turns ... even if they match

Yes has a spool Dana 60. Tires are within 1/4 probably.

I worked on a car that someone put a spring on the brake pedal pulling towards the master cylinder for some odd reason. Pulled spring off and 1 person could push the car that was difficult with 2 people prior.it wasn't a real stout spring but it held the brakes.

Mine wouldn't even roll down the hill in the staging lanes at Dragway 42. Loosened upped the Will wood brakes. Rolls easy. Made ZERO difference in ET. I've had the front Will woods apart numerous times. The strange part is only the front pair stick. Never the rears.
Doug

Cold, my car was the same way. Almost impossible to push.
But after i make a pass i can push it easily.
I think its the tight clutch pack in transmission??.

My son had an issue with his line lock that was causing his front factory disk brakes to drag. He disconnected it two years ago and all is well

Too much camber or toe

I noticed my car was harder to push backwards than it had been, at the same time had a small differential leak. I took the driveshaft out and found the pinion nut just hand tight. I put a new nut on, with loctite, around 250 ftlbs, and it was then back to normal in terms of how hard it is to push, and no more leak. I also engraved the pinion and nut so that I can look in and see that the nut is where it was when torqued in.

Not a race car, but my 67 GTX convert is hard to push. 727 trans, 8-3/4, drum brakes, 50,000 original miles. I made sure the brakes are not dragging. I think it's something in the trans. I'll be watching here.

The car will be harder to push rearward due to more internal components rotating in the trans when the output is turned counter clockwise. Even though my trans is mostly roller bearing, it is still very tough to push. Yet on the hoist you can rotate the drive shaft with one hand (spool, axles. brakes, wheels/tires installed).
Doug

If you have a spool that's the reason for it being hard to push even for 3 people, prior to the spool i could push the car by myself.

Sounds like your rear tires are not the same diameter based on pushing harder now with the spool compared to before
I used a cloth seamstress tape to measure the circumference of all my tires regardless if going on a spool rear end or not

Did you ever figure out the problem ?

My car was always hard to push and it turned out that the pinion nut was too tight and the crush sleeve was crushed too much.

Does the Master cylinder have a residual valve for drum brakes in it? If so it will hold close to 10 Lb. pressure on them