ahh, no brakes

[krazy_texan]

ok today i got off work and came home to work on the truck, was going to take it to a friends house just down the road to mount my exhaust, discovered he was not home and as i went to hit the brake to pull into my driveway, it sunk to the floor and i though Oh Sh*t i ran it into the neigbors yard and into a dirt mound he had to stop it, got out of the truck as my brother came running to see if i was okay and then he ask what was all over my front driver tire, come out the brake had blown which was one of the scariest things i have ever had happen in a vehicle so know i have one more thing to fix before i get it on the road.
oh and my mom about crapped a brick when she heard about it at the dinner table.

[Longhorn Man]

LOL, had that happen once.
I still say brakes are over rated.
You only need 2 of the following items to drive a vehicle...
good working clutch
horn
parking brake

If two of those things work, you're good to go.

[krazy_texan]

my problem is that the truck is not complete and i have no parking brake or horn, yet

[Rakort]

hence your problem....need at least two

[1969 GMC]

isnt the brake loss fun? i had a brake hose blow out on me while attempting to stop at a red light on a 55 mph state route. needless to say, I blew the red light and blew a big mess into my drawers. then it happened to me less than 2 wks later in my old festiva, so my mom thought I was purposefully trying to destroy all the cars we had.

[jimfulco]

Whatcha need a clutch for?

[Longhorn Man]

one time when I was delivering pizzas in the old blue Longhorn, I took an exit ramb at about 80 MPH or so, stabbed the brake pedal, and that sucker stabbed me right back...booster popped on me. That was enough to almost soil my pants.

[Low69CST]

Originally posted by Longhorn Man
LOL, had that happen once.
I still say brakes are over rated.
You only need 2 of the following items to drive a vehicle...
good working clutch
horn
parking brake

If two of those things work, you're good to go.

I agree, real men don't need brakes!

[Longhorn Man]

We won't talk about one of my highschool hoopties...$50 Chevy Monza, had absolutly no brakes. You hit the pedal, all it would do it turn on the brake lights. HAd to use the E-brake, and only one wheel would react. Drove that sucker rain or shine, and through a blizzard too.
Oh, no horn, and it was an automatic.
Lots of stories on that thing...more dependible than gravity.




I ran over a lot of stuff in that car...both living things, and inatimate objects. Got busted doing donuts in the highschool's front lawn too...almost got suspended for that.

[dinnut]

when i bought my truck it had no brakes.... had to pump the hell out of them to get the truck to think about stopping... i didnt know this and hit my other truck with the chrome bumper and messed it up. that sucked big time. new master cylinder fixed the brakes for the most part.

[oldsub86]

Better check the rear brakes. Blowing a hose on the front end should not have left you without brakes. These trucks are new enough to have the dual system and the double resevoir master cylinder. You wouldn't have the stopping power you normally have and you might need to pump it a time or two but you should still have brakes.

[Longhorn Man]

In theory, you are right, however, I'll bet my next paycheck that if you cut a front...or even a rear hose, on a truck with totally rebuilt brakes, you won't stop for crap.
Even on a modern car (compaired to these rigs) like my old 86 honda, when i blew a rear brake cylinder there was pretty much no stopping it. It was like doing 60 and tying to stop it by throwing a brick out the window tied to the bumper.

[1969 GMC]

I agree...I did a visual inspection of the brake system when the front hose blew. Nothing else was bad. I replaced both front hoses and checked all wheel cylinders, and the rear brake hose and all metal lines, and the MC...everything was ok.
The same thing happened with my Festiva...I blew one of the rear wheel cylinders and I lost all brakes while going about 65, I was going down a steep hill and was going to turn into a friend's driveway...yeah, I missed that a lil bit. Made it home ok, lucky for me there were no cops out cuz I blew thru about 4 red lights and a couple of stop signs to get home.

[krazy_texan]

well they did work if i pumped at them alot but that still did not stop me in the distance i needed to stop, my house is the second house on our street and i was headed towards a busy road at about 6 in the evening, it was weard because i could put the truck in reverse and it the would work considerbly better but not thier full extent and i backed into my car getting it back in the driveway.

[OrangePride]

Originally posted by oldsub86
Better check the rear brakes. Blowing a hose on the front end should not have left you without brakes. These trucks are new enough to have the dual system and the double resevoir master cylinder. You wouldn't have the stopping power you normally have and you might need to pump it a time or two but you should still have brakes.

I agree, but on my '70 which was converted to disc brakes on the front and still had the OLD drums on the back (which were barely functional), I blew a front brake hose wide open and barely made it to a stop before rear ending a poor import car. I would put money on it that you either have no brake fluid in the reservoir or, like me you have bad back brakes and a front hose is blown (which in that case you would have no fluid in one reservoir also).

[Sweet72]

I lost my vacuum booster on a cross country trip in the '72. I was on I-40 headed east from Las Vegas to Maryland. Lost the boost in eastern New Mexico and tried to find a booster in several towns in Texas, and was told they could have it in a day or two. Well, I was in a hurry and low on cash so I fought that thing all the way to Nashville Tn., where my brother met me with a used booster. Both feet on the brake pedal and start to stop 100 yards in advance! Scarry as hell!! Power brakes without vacuum assist is 4X worse than manual drum brakes!