Coming home from work Monday night my brakes quite working on my 66
stang. The pedal feels like it hits the floor but probaly is just
maxing out its stroke. The stang has manual brakes, granada front
disc's and stock rear drums. The first pump goes straight down with no
resistence, each pump after makes the pedal firmer and firmer but the
car feels like the back brakes are the only pair working. The brakes
performed fine before Monday.
I limped home and looked at my master cylinder, the rear bowl was empty
so i filled it up, looked for any leaks (none found) and proceeded to
bleed the brakes. I found an air pocket on the front drivers side, but
then I bled the bowl dry. So I started over and proceeded more carefuly
and slowly the second time.I was not able to find another air pocket
and the pedal still felt limp. So today I bled the front lines again.
Went through a 32oz bottle and found no air pockets and still have a
limp pedal.
Does this mean my master cylinder is bad? Any recommendations on the
best priced dual bowl master cylinder?
..boB wrote:
> 66stang wrote:
>> Coming home from work Monday night my brakes quite working on my 66
>> stang. Does this mean my master cylinder is bad?
>
> Yes.
If it's a 4-wheel drum setup, you could have also lost a wheel cylinder.
Is there any brake fluid left in the master cylinder or has it
disappeared? It could also be a broken brake line. If the master cyl
is empty, fill it with some fluid, stomp on the brake, then aim for the
wet spot on the floor.
It doesn't seem to lose fluid when I stomp on the pedal though.
It's always had a very slow leak but nothing serious. I would have to
top it off every few months but the bowl was never less than half full.
Also for the last 2 years, when stopped at a light the pedal would
slowly lose pressure and would require a pump to bring back the
firmness. Sign of master cylinder failure?
In article <1138332163.928129.112170@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, 66stang wrote:
> It doesn't seem to lose fluid when I stomp on the pedal though.
> It's always had a very slow leak but nothing serious. I would have to
> top it off every few months but the bowl was never less than half full.
> Also for the last 2 years, when stopped at a light the pedal would
> slowly lose pressure and would require a pump to bring back the
> firmness. Sign of master cylinder failure?
"66stang" <Blindthieves@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1138249677.239141.269160@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> Coming home from work Monday night my brakes quite working on my 66
> stang. The pedal feels like it hits the floor but probaly is just
> maxing out its stroke. The stang has manual brakes, granada front
> disc's and stock rear drums. The first pump goes straight down with no
> resistence, each pump after makes the pedal firmer and firmer but the
> car feels like the back brakes are the only pair working. The brakes
> performed fine before Monday.
>
> I limped home and looked at my master cylinder, the rear bowl was empty
> so i filled it up, looked for any leaks (none found) and proceeded to
> bleed the brakes. I found an air pocket on the front drivers side, but
> then I bled the bowl dry. So I started over and proceeded more carefuly
> and slowly the second time.I was not able to find another air pocket
> and the pedal still felt limp. So today I bled the front lines again.
> Went through a 32oz bottle and found no air pockets and still have a
> limp pedal.
>
> Does this mean my master cylinder is bad? Any recommendations on the
> best priced dual bowl master cylinder?
>
> -Evan
>
Before you buy a new master cylinder I would visually inspect both the front
disks calipers and rear drum wheel cylinders for leaks. My guess would be
that you've got a caliper piston seal/boot leak. You will have to remove the
calipers to verify this one way or the other as you can't tell from just
looking on the outside.
66stang wrote:
> It doesn't seem to lose fluid when I stomp on the pedal though.
> It's always had a very slow leak but nothing serious. I would have to
> top it off every few months but the bowl was never less than half full.
> Also for the last 2 years, when stopped at a light the pedal would
> slowly lose pressure and would require a pump to bring back the
> firmness. Sign of master cylinder failure?
>
Sounds like it's the master cylinder then. However, if you're losing
fluid, you still want to find out where it's going. It may have just
been running down the firewall behind the master cyl or you may have a
leaking line or wheel cylinder in addition to a bad master cylinder.
Don't forget to periodically (every 2 years or so) bleed ALL the brake
fluid out and replace it with fresh fluid.
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