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Crunch!


datsunaholic

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When you start having to pump the pedal to stop, that's a pretty good indication you should STOP DRIVING the thing until you get it fixed.

 

This is the '76 KC rustbucket.

 

After the freeze we had a few weeks ago, I noticed that when I was stopped at stoplights the pedal would start to sink to the floor. Sometimes it was slow, sometimes it would hold a couple seconds then drop like a hose had blown and the brakes would release. I would have to constantly re-engage the brakes. Checked the reservoirs, they were midlevel. The brakes still worked, but I was starting to wonder. Well, Tuesday the pedal hit the floor as I was turning the last corner to come home. The parking brake only works on one side (the passenger cable is broke off) so that wasn't really an option so I did a mini-drift onto my street since I was already commited to the turn. The brakes worked the next push. I parked it immediately.

 

So, Saturday I decided to see if I could find the problem. I was thinking "master cylinder", since there was no visable leaks anywhere, and the fluid level was unchanged. But for some reason I couldn't get the serious pedal fade- a little, at the top, but it would hold. So I bled the master, which DID have air in it. The brakes felt a lot better so I Took it for a test drive.

 

Went to the post office- buggers closed the PO box lobby an HOUR early. Brakes were still working. So went to get dinner at a drive thru (forgetting I had dinner in the fridge, oh well, that's for tonight I guess). Pulled into the driveway, hit the brakes for the speed bump... nothing. Double pump to avoid going through the Pawn X Change next door, since I had come off Highway 7 at a pretty good clip seeing I had to cross 2 lanes of 40MPH traffic. Well, it whoa!ed up OK, got my dinner, headed home being VERY careful. Headed immediately for the side arterials since the last thing I wanted was to have to make a quick stop from 40MPH for a light. Brakes didn't repeat the speed bump no-stop- until I pulled into my own driveway.

 

It's funny- it took less than 2 seconds to realize 1) the brakes weren't doing a damn thing to stop me, 2) the pedal failed so quickly I had no time to pump them up OR grab for the not-really functional parking brake, 3) I was headed directly for the trailer tongue of my boat trailer, and a plastic grill was all that separated the pointy 2" ball-mount hitch tongue from my radiator, and 4) the alternative was to hit my 4X4 right in the door.

 

Well, the 4X4 driver's door has been pissing me off since it won't shut right, the window regulator gears are stripped and the inner handle fell off last week. Besides, the door is all bondo anyway, always has been, and I've been planning to replace it. So I turned the wheel to the right very quickly.

 

Alas, I didn't get to take out anything on the annoying door since driver's side fender found the trailer tongue. Hit hard enough to push the boat trailer(which weighs almost 3 tons since there's a boat on it) a couple inches. The driver's side headlight stopped the truck after the tongue deflected off the fender inward.

 

Funny, it didn't break the headlight. Shattered what was left of the grille (it was only a '73-77 type, and it was already pretty busted up), put a VERY small dent in the fender (which doesn't matter, the fender is beat in on the side and rusty, kinda glad I didn't replace it last month when I thought about it).

 

But it still made me think- if that had happened on the freeway, it would have been a LOT more than a busted grille and an elevated heartbeat. The brakes have been iffy for weeks. But I'd told myself "they work, it stops eventually". I know better. I've had 2 other cars have brake failure and neither was fun. Sure, I can joke about it NOW, but neither of the previous ones actually caused me to HIT something.

 

Today I replaced the master cylinder. Gee, the brakes work now.

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I was planning on pulling my master cyl off today. The PO said the brakes were fine when he last drove it, 14 months ago, but I've got brake fluid damage all down the firewall and chassis. I intend to replace or rebuild the entire brake system before the truck returns to the road.

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