Well, that's all she wrote for the brakes. I almost introduced The Beast to a tanker truck last night on the way home. I have done a lot of replacements and rebuilds in the past and have always had 2 problems. I can never quite get them bled right and not real sure on the adjusting as far as how tight they should be. Should the tire free wheel, should there be a little drag? With power brakes, should they be bled with the engine running or shut off? What is the most effective way to bleed them? I have always bled them from the master cylinder because the valves at the wheels are usually worn out, stuck or just broken.
yea further up stream isn't recommended at all but i had to do this once once the side of the road. i lost a line while i was parked just happen to have enough stuff to make a splice but i couldn't get any thing broke loose except the master cylinder. it did get me home to get the repair done right though. i just had to be extra extra careful
Just one more point to add is the importance of changing brake fluid regularly. Hydraulic fluid has a tendency to draw moisture in which is what is going to start corroding all that nice shiny metal inside those cylinders and steel brake lines over time. The import vehicles recommend changing brake fluid once a year because their parts are very expensive to replace.
I even heard of one extreme case where the fluid was so old in a vehicle that it lost its high boiling temp rating and completely failed on a car traversing down switchbacks....the car didn't make it, nor the family.
When rake fluid gets too much moisture in it, the moisture can boil and turn to steam. Steam is compressable, which is something you do NOT want in a brake system! You then have very little hydraulic pressure, and basically no brakes.
"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."
Red Green
good thing to know i didn't know these last two items. i just knew that you should always use clean brake fluid. thanks guys you get a star from me. i do have story about boiling brake fuild if anyones interested. bottm line the brake caught fire and i lost my pepsi.
Well I got the front done and started to bleed the brakes. As I was doing the right rear, my helper told me that no pressure was building up. I looked over and fluid was pouring out of the left rear drum. Guess she is getting new brakes all the way around.
That's a bummer!
But you will be much safer when you're finished.
Make sure you replace all the brake springs and hardware.
It's not that expensive, and the investment in safety is priceless.
Here's a website I found: http://www.classictruckshop.com/brake_rebuild.asp
"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."
Red Green
flyboy2610 wrote:That's a bummer!
But you will be much safer when you're finished.
Make sure you replace all the brake springs and hardware.
It's not that expensive, and the investment in safety is priceless.
Here's a website I found: http://www.classictruckshop.com/brake_rebuild.asp
Thanks for posting that. I'm going to be rebuilding my brakes soon and I'd lost that article and couldn't find it!!
Well, that's all she wrote for the brakes. I almost introduced The Beast to a tanker truck last night on the way home. I have done a lot of replacements and rebuilds in the past and have always had 2 problems. I can never quite get them bled right and not real sure on the adjusting as far as how tight they should be. Should the tire free wheel, should there be a little drag? With power brakes, should they be bled with the engine running or shut off? What is the most effective way to bleed them? I have always bled them from the master cylinder because the valves at the wheels are usually worn out, stuck or just broken.
