mecanical and juice brakes

Pa Joe

Pa Joe

Senior Member
Just thought I would pass this along. Over the weekend I was helping my daughter move and I had the 03 GMC pickup loaded to the hilt. Here in western Pa your either going up hill or down hill Well, I was going down a long steep hill loaded down when a rusty brake line decided to let go. At the bottom of the hill, is a busy highway. I managed to get it in low gear and use the emergency brake to slow it down and I missed the traffic at the bottom of the hill. My heart was in my throat. So much for double chamber master cylinders. Maybe the mechanical brakes on my old 28 tudor ain't a bad idea.
 
Hershey last year the rear line in my Ford van popped a rust spec just as I was backing into the space.

The pedal went to the floor and it did not feel like I had any brakes.

We could not find any brake line and tools to fix the problem at the Flea Market.

Bought a few vice grips. Cut the line and folded the end and crimped it tight. Still was not tight enough, had to make it tighter. Then used a the second vice grips to hold the first pair. Drove home with a decent pedal and only front brakes.

You have to be careful these days. When the pedal goes to the floor you disturb dirt. Some ABS units are ok with this and others die quick.
 
Dont understand it either Paul. I had pedal for a short time then the pedal went to the floor.
 
... and if the brakes do not let go, the ABS
goes mad and starts "mad regulation" due to
some dirt somewhere ....
Brake power goes down to "0" without sence

Had that twice on my GM Blazer (out of Mexico)
Was happy to survive.

Once i arrived at the dealers, all was well again .

Once killing some pedestrians they would say
that its a drivers-mistake...

regards
Christoph

btw
im proud to have all new mecanicals in my Tudor
 
I've experienced failures both at front and at rear on pre-ABS double cylinder vehicles.
With rear failures, overall braking was actually pretty good, but the pedal went pretty far down so it felt worse than it was. (One such failure was caused by a really bad muffler installation, and happened the night before leaving for Hershey!!! Naturally, I made the trip!)
With front failure, braking was very poor (and this was a light RWD car with nearly even weight distribution), and stepping down hard to get more braking took it to rear wheel lockup and radiacl instability fast. This mode was really only good for getting the hell off of the road NOW.
 
There is an alloy tubing that is used on many European cars, it is salt resistant and won't corrode on the inside from water. I read about it in Skinned Knuckles, and we use it on our Bonneville lakester. It is also easier to work with than steel tubing. It does require a double-flare, as does steel. It comes in rolls but I think you can get it in short lengths too, not sure?
 
Jim,

I think the stuff you're referring to is called "Cunifer"...

If you google it, you should find a source for it in the US.

Supposed to be the best for brake / fuel lines.


SC Frank
 
1931 flamingo said:
don't u/stand. Depending on which brake line you lost, you should have had 2 of the 4 wheels braking?
paul in CT
Click to expand...

On my '97 Blazer, I lost a rear brake line. Thought I could get home on the front brakes. The rear reservoir is located ahead of the front reservoir in the master cylinder. Had a hard pedal until I had to stop quickly at a concealed stop sign. The fluid sloshed forward from the front brake reservoir through a factory designed gap into the rear brake reservoir. Now I had a soft pedal. Limped slowly to the next Irving and bought a pint of brake fluid. Filled up the master cylinder and made it the next 70 miles, but was careful to not stop too quickly. So yeah, you can lose all four brakes in a GM product if the fluid sloshes out of the working half into the leaky half.
 
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