i got everything pretty much taken care of and it made its 40 mile maiden voyage all the way home without a hitch. the brakes are scary and its probably the most underpowered car i have ever driven but it should be a good daily grind after some more work.

when i push the brakes it goes flying to the left. any ideas?

 

Sticking or failed brake caliper.
Or a combination of that, and worn out steering components/balljoints.

 

the pull to the left went away but ill probaly go through the brakes anyway. but no i am noticing a lot of noise from the front pass wheel. sounds very much like grinding things and not happy thoughts at all. maybe a wheel bearing? how hard are they to change out?

 

If it has been sitting any amount of time, The calipers will be stuck and leaking. Bearings are easy.

 

its been sitting for the last 5 years that i know of.

 

It'll be cheap and easy to bring back. FB parts are inexpensive and readily available. Rockauto and mazdatrix are good sources. The service manual is online.

 

^^^bingo. if the caliper is still good and easy to compress the piston, you may have a frozen or poor;y greased slide pin. also, the right caliper may not be working at all. finally, inspect or replace the brake hoses, as you may have a collpased hose, which will collapse internally and you will not be able to tell if it is in fact collapsed. as far as teh slowest car that you've driven, try a chevy sprint ER or geo metro XFI, lol. those have obnly one compression ring per cylinder and while they get GREAT gas mileage, are terribly slow.