How a New Seat Saved my Truck

[tsetsaf]

This is a little story about how a new seat (aka guardian angel) saved my truck...

This last Saturday I took the "new" 71 out to Pomona to pick up a new seat to replace the stock bench. I took my dad along, as the whole trip would be about 4 hours of cruising in gramps old truck, and it would be a good bonding experience. We had to stop first in Downtown LA and then took the 10 due East into Pomona with only light traffic in our way. Along the drive out I had noticed the brakes feeling a little spongy but figured it was nothing serious rather a sign of the neglect this truck has experienced over the last few years.

We arrived safely at our pickup destination and loaded up the seat, which is brand new and perfect , then began the drive home. The brakes still didn't feel correct but I believed they would get us home; how important are brakes anyways?

About 2 miles into the return trip the plastic on the seats flapped loose and began whipping in the wind. For safety's sake I decided to exit the freeway and secure the plastic. As I exited and began to push the brake pedal it went straight to the floor but I was able to pump the pedal and bring the beast to a crawl. The last 5 miles per hour was wrestled to a stop by a flick of the shifter into park (thank goodness for the auto safety in the trans - click click click stop) I had yet to test the parking/ emergency brake and did not want to take the chance of rolling through the intersection at the bottom of the off ramp if it was inoperative.

With the truck parked I hopped out and secured the plastic then proceeded to check under the hood. A quick inspection found nothing glaringly off and the brake pedal had returned to some form of usability. After a lengthy debate, weighing the pros and cons of calling a tow for the 60 miles back home, we decided to perform a slow roll test of the e-brake to see if it could nurse us back; it could.

We re-entered the freeway, at a much lower speed than before and with a lot more room between ourselves and vehicles in front. For those that have driven So Cal freeways you know that if there is more than three car lengths between you and another vehicle at 70 mph you are driving too slow. 1.5 miles after returning to the freeway traffic was flowing at a steady 70 mph (except for us at 55 mph) as we rounded a bend in the freeway, mind you that we would have been traveling 70 mph at this point also, to find traffic completely stopped. Vehicles in all lanes were forced to test the limits of their abs systems; had it been us we would have been testing the limits of our insurance. I was able to safely slow with the assistance of the e-brake and we survived the trip home.

A quick tear down identified a failed master cylinder as the culprit.

My hope is that after reading this you will take a second to check your brakes (primary and secondary systems) and make sure you can stop safely. I was lucky enough to be carrying a guardian angel seat don't bet on that type of luck for you. Be safe and have fun.

Mark