My 87GT Dives to the left or right intermintently, could it be sticky caliper pistons?????

If it darts to one side for a second or two and then brakes normally (evens out), it's probably the flexible brake hoses that are getting mushy. After 10 to 12 years of daily usage, these brake hose should be replaced, but people rarely do it. I also had one hose clog completely up once (the interior can deteriorate and collapse too).

Sticking calipers usually either don't compress at all or drag until the rotor is red hot. I actually had a caliper do this and the rotor got so hot it melted a hole into the rubber brake hose and blew it out. There was a loud bang and the brake fluid hitting the red hot rotor created a lot of smoke. For a minute, I thought something blew up and my car was on fire. Scared about one year off my life. Sure got the heart a pumping.

Batboy: thanks for the info, makes sense to me. I'll give it a try and post the results.

in addition to the brakes, check all the rest if the suspension, Including the steering column. Play in the column, the rack unit, or bushings, could all cause this.

There are 2 universals in the column shaft. one is under the dash, one is burried under the car. wear in either of them, or a lose lock bolt, can cause all sorts of odd wanderings.

After thinking about what Ogre said, I'd have to agree with him. Usually, the darting to one side due to a failing brake hose is consistantly to one side. If your front end is pulling first to one side one time then the other the next, maybe it's more as Ogre suggested. Although, if those are the original brake hoses on your car, it sure won't hurt to replace them.

Wow,never had a brake "blowout",hope that I don't,the only brake line I've ruptured was when a car fell off of a jack,slowly,and raked a hard line on the way down.
I agree with the Ogre,usually see these symptoms on vehicles with steering boxes,and about eight potential slop creating joints.
Either that or your allignment is slightly toed out,that'll create problems,should be just slightly in.

I was driving down the road one day in my 86SE and the approaching light turned yellow. "I can make it....No, I better stop" I slammed the brake pedal to the floor and the car was stopping hard. Then, all the sudden the brake pedal hit the floor and the car seemed to speed up. A 3/4 ton Dodge almost smashed me as I coasted through the "red" light. Come to find out the front driver's side hose had been rubbing on the control arm and finally burst. I tell you...I checked all my lines that day and ever since.

I'll buy that for a dollar..........

If there is ANY damage to a brake line, Replace it. It just isn't worth the chance of what happens if it fails.

I slid thru an intersection twice in my life. both times because of weather conditions. In one I hit a car, and pretty much totaled both cars. In the other The light dropped red, the wheels stopped, the car didn't. I slid 200+ feet at least. It was absolutly terifying.

And people ask why im putting on 91 Beretta/Grand Am brakes.

Anyone consider an ABS system

Punky, you'd better check a bit more on those 1991 Baretta/Grand Am brakes. I recall hearing something about some changes to the 91 Grand Am brakes that made them slightly different from the 91 Baretta (I'm not sure what the difference is). It's my understanding is that 85-91 Baretta or 85-90 Grand Am brake calipers and rotors are the ones you want. NOT the 91 Grand Am parts. When I did my brake swap, I saved myself and the parts counter guy any kind of confusion and just asked for 1988 Grand Am brake parts. My swap worked out great by doing it that way.

I was stopped at a Red Light, waiting patiently one afternoon, and all of the sudden the pedal hit the floor and I was off.
Fortunatley, I had the quick urge to put the emergency brake on. That was in an oldsmobile though, and it turned out to be a bad seal in the Master Cylinder.

Brake problems are bad!

Batboy

Good thing I asked for the Berretta ones, or I'd have a pile of 300 dollar crap on my floor. I m just following a set of instructions a couple of guys in my car club used to put on theirs, so i think im pretty safe :-)

Punky, Greendano helped me get started on my recent brake swap, so if you have any questions, either him or me should be able to answer them for you. Also, if you haven't already checked out this link, you may want to:

http://members.tripod.com/Randy_Agee/brakes2.html