more brake issues plus rant

[krazy_texan]

Ok so because of my work schedule i decided just to take my truck to a shop and have the brakes finished. Well they did not do crap. they called me *****ing that the M/C was off of a different vehicle, and that the brake lines needed to be rerouted and that the brand new FR wheel cylinder was leaking. Then tells me he can replace the wheel cylinder that will cost $54 i told him i didnt know where he gets his parts but i can get it for $12 at oreilly's down the road so not to touch it then he tells me that he cannot even bleed the rear brakes even though they are plumbed to a different resevoir so it would not make a difference which i find bs being as that was the reason i put a dual resevoir M/C on the truck to begin with so that if i had issues with either the fronts or the rears that i would still have something. So i told him i would just come pick up the truck and do it myself when i am not sure. I have been wrenching for years mostly as hobby work on older vehicles and i know alot of what this guy was arguing with me about was BS. So i am just going to order a new wheel cylinder to be on the safe side then i am going to recheck my brake lines and work on the truck some more tommorow.

Just to ask one thing though I put a 1968 M/C on the truck and i am keeping all the drums should it matter what side runs to the front or the rear. The truck is a 65 1/2ton and the part is for a 1/2 ton

[Clyde65]

It just sounds like he didnt WANT to do it in the first place. I would said Front to front and back to back. the front does more of the braking anyway.

Id bet you could find a couple board members around to lend a hand on a given weekend day that would speed up the process.

[krazy_texan]

i have a feeling he didnt want to do the work either cause i was going to have them replace the front seal on my rearend also and they didnt touch it. but i dont have a compressor big enough to run an impact to do that with but i will prob tackle that next weekend with a friend and a big breaker bar. Plus his tone of voice changed when i told him the truck was a 1965 like it was going to be a nuisence to him.

[HEI451]

I get the feeling he DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO WORK ON OLDER BRAKE SYSTEMS. I get this ALL the time in my shop, new age "mechanics" that really aren't mechanics at all. All they seem to do is mess things up worse than the original problems/issues, and then, I get to fix all of 'em, the original problem(s), AND what the whizz-bang new age disaster made worse.

[PAPA KENT]

you will be happier doing it yourself then at least you'll know it's done right.

[padresag]

Originally Posted by HEI451

I get the feeling he DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO WORK ON OLDER BRAKE SYSTEMS. I get this ALL the time in my shop, new age "mechanics" that really aren't mechanics at all. All they seem to do is mess things up worse than the original problems/issues, and then, I get to fix all of 'em, the original problem(s), AND what the whizz-bang new age disaster made worse.

i guess that no one else in your view can do anything right can they
ron

[jocko]

krazy texan - for your 68 master cyl:
- the FORWARD reservoir (toward your grille) should be plumbed to the REAR brakes.
- the AFT reservoir (toward firewall) should be plumbed to your FRONT brakes.

Counter-intuitive, I know, but the dual drum master cyl is designed such that it biases front, but only if you hook er up correctly. No proportioning valve is required, but you can add one if you have a strong desire to fine-tune the brake bias.

Hope that helps. Chief Rocka hooked me up with the definitive answer to the same question I had a while back.

EDIT: here's a link to the referenced thread where Chief provided a great diagram of which mc port goes to front/rear brakes, etc. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=332148&page=4 see post #80 specifically (Thanks Chief!)

[padresag]

Originally Posted by krazy_texan

Ok so because of my work schedule i decided just to take my truck to a shop and have the brakes finished. Well they did not do crap. they called me *****ing that the M/C was off of a different vehicle, and that the brake lines needed to be rerouted and that the brand new FR wheel cylinder was leaking. Then tells me he can replace the wheel cylinder that will cost $54 i told him i didnt know where he gets his parts but i can get it for $12 at oreilly's down the road so not to touch it then he tells me that he cannot even bleed the rear brakes even though they are plumbed to a different resevoir so it would not make a difference which i find bs being as that was the reason i put a dual resevoir M/C on the truck to begin with so that if i had issues with either the fronts or the rears that i would still have something. So i told him i would just come pick up the truck and do it myself when i am not sure. I have been wrenching for years mostly as hobby work on older vehicles and i know alot of what this guy was arguing with me about was BS. So i am just going to order a new wheel cylinder to be on the safe side then i am going to recheck my brake lines and work on the truck some more tommorow.

Just to ask one thing though I put a 1968 M/C on the truck and i am keeping all the drums should it matter what side runs to the front or the rear. The truck is a 65 1/2ton and the part is for a 1/2 ton

. your asking someone to do something to a vehicle that you have altered. he is the responsible if he works on it and it goes for cowpoop afterwards. he may want to fix it properly so that it does not come back on and I don't blame him for that.
there is a difference in a m/cyls that are meant for drum/drum and for dis/drum. one has a extra valve in it that the other doesn't .
I worked in a gas station 50 years ago and my boss told never to patch anything as it will come back to haunt you. repair it so that it works properly and good
I do restoration and build furniture. people come and want you to patch things to get by. I tell that I will do it properly or that they can get someone else to do it. there are some who will bad mouth you for that attitude but that is better than having to fight them for a bill that they don't want to pay and there is some b/yarder who will always repair it the way that they want.
about the price of the w/c. you are more than likely were shoppping for the best price that you could(and made in china). bought it wholesale and expect him to sell it to wholesale also; but he has to make a living .. He may not be selling you a made in china w/c( which yours has deemed to have failed; take it back and they will give you another); but "made in America" for which you will have to pay more for and retail.
he can't do it for the price that you can do it for and guarantee his work .
which you will expect him to do
those are some of the things that you should consider before you badmouth them as they may have different standards then you. you more than likely said or asked that you wanted your brakes fixed so that they worked, right?
ron

[krazy_texan]

thanks Jocko thats what i was thinking i told the guy that i have owned several old chevy's in the past and this is the way that they are plumbed and he tried to argue with me. Now to put the icing on the cake i told the guy to park my truck outside that i would be by after hours to get it due to my schedule and i had plans to pick it up after we got back from dinner so i go to the shop to get it and it is locked up inside the shop which really makes me mad and he is going to get a piece of my mind cause tues-thurs i have school from 8am to 12:30 then i have work from 4:30pm to 3am so i am going to loose about an hour of my sleep tomorrow afternoon going to get my truck i had time to go get it tonight and now i cant just makes me mad as a hornet ugh.
Padresag: I was wanting him to fix it properly originally cause my son rides in that truck and i take his safety more serious than my own and the wheel cylinder i had installed on my truck was a bendix part im not saying it was the most expensive one but it most certainly was not the cheapest. I do understand that he has a job to do but at the same time i have searched up and down through multiple vendors online and off and have not anywhere seen one cost $54. What really urks me though is that i had a few things i wanted to have them do but because the first thing on the list was not doable to thier standards they did not even look at the other things i wanted done. I do agree that brakes are not something to be messed with but i got some help coming over this weekend for the cost of a steak dinner which is way less than the $300 parts and labor that they quoted me.

[Dieselwrencher]

If you want to try to tackle this thing, I can try to help you out some weekend. I may even be able to haul it to the shop so we can work in a heated area if need be.

[jocko]

What, it's cold in Iowa already??? Us SoCal folks are so spoiled....

[krazy_texan]

its cold to a texas boy lol
Ryan: Thanks for the offer let me see what i get done this weekend and i will let you know if i need your help mind you to i dont have anyone to watch my son on weekends.

[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by jocko

What, it's cold in Iowa already??? Us SoCal folks are so spoiled....

It's already been down to 26* a few times and we already had 2" of snow. I'm not ready for either right now. I'm still trying to find stuff and it hasn't snowed yet! LMAO!

[jocko]

Ha, Brrrr..... I'm exaggerating a bit about my little corner of socal - it's been high 20's in the morning and high 50's in the daytime here in the high desert. But that was a "cold snap" - we're ramping back up to low of 40 and high of 70 later this week!

[krazy_texan]

i didnt know it got that cold in so cal lol

[padresag]

Originally Posted by krazy_texan

thanks Jocko thats what i was thinking i told the guy that i have owned several old chevy's in the past and this is the way that they are plumbed and he tried to argue with me. Now to put the icing on the cake i told the guy to park my truck outside that i would be by after hours to get it due to my schedule and i had plans to pick it up after we got back from dinner so i go to the shop to get it and it is locked up inside the shop which really makes me mad and he is going to get a piece of my mind cause tues-thurs i have school from 8am to 12:30 then i have work from 4:30pm to 3am so i am going to loose about an hour of my sleep tomorrow afternoon going to get my truck i had time to go get it tonight and now i cant just makes me mad as a hornet ugh.
Padresag: I was wanting him to fix it properly originally cause my son rides in that truck and i take his safety more serious than my own and the wheel cylinder i had installed on my truck was a bendix part im not saying it was the most expensive one but it most certainly was not the cheapest. I do understand that he has a job to do but at the same time i have searched up and down through multiple vendors online and off and have not anywhere seen one cost $54. What really urks me though is that i had a few things i wanted to have them do but because the first thing on the list was not doable to thier standards they did not even look at the other things i wanted done. I do agree that brakes are not something to be messed with but i got some help coming over this weekend for the cost of a steak dinner which is way less than the $300 parts and labor that they quoted me.

I can see both sides and sometimes we do not like to see the other side. you may have owed him a few dollars perhaps for his services, which is why he didn't leave it sitting outside for you to pick up. been there done that. nothing leaves my shop unless it is paid for unless it is a commercial a/c and I know that it will be paid. nothing worse than having to chase someone for $50.00.
there are a lot of places now that charges $100.00 or so for diagnostic charges which I see as a ripoff for a visual check and est though not if they hook up their machines and do a check that way as it does take time
more than likely a lack of communications of what each other expected of each other. $300.00 is alot of money sometimes but it doesn't go very far anymore. that is just 4 hours labour in my shop and I feel that, that is low now.
I think that older vehicles are a pita for most shops now as they know that they cannot really make any money on them as to many things cause misery for them.sometimes to fix one thing you have to repair a couple of other things along the way that you can't really charge for as you have quoted and you try and be fair, but that brake line twists off and this is stripped but was gunny sacked together and so you end up fixing that but you can't charge for it or you will be a sob and a rip off. they are a no win situation.
I think that the drum/drum m/c has some sort of relief valve or whatever that the other doesn't have at the outlet port. I know that there is something there just can't remember.
I would check that w/c for what is wrong or take it back if it is weeping. easy enough though to just take it apart and seif perhaps it just needs a hone run through it. maybe it sat on the shelf to long and a little rust or a frozen rubber
ron