Today I got my windshield installed so I was able to drive my car for the first time (other than up and down my street twice). My nieghbor Jeff (jt914-6), who has been insturmental in my build, was here so we jumped in, buckled up and headed for jeeperjohn's house for the test drive and to check on his progress. The car was running beautiful I think the flat spots in the tires were even rounding out! We got about 11 miles from home when we approached an intersection and the brake pedal hit the floor. After a breif panic (and Jeff screaming to grab the e-brake) we successfully skided to a stop 1/4 of the way into the intersection . For the rest of the drive home, no brakes. Once into the driveway and out of the car it was evident the problem was at the right front wheel. Brake fluid everywhere. It turns out that the four bolts that hold the front caliper together had not been tighten and had backed out allowing the caliper to seperate. After removing the caliper and inspecting it there was no damage to the o-rings. Reassemble, qwick trip to get more brake fluid and rebleed the brakes. Oh ya and check the other calipers . We were off for another test drive. It's all good . More driving tommorrow Glad it happened here and not on the way to Tahoe!!
Glad to hear it! I'm sure many of us are bringing tools with us just in case. With trailerd cars following us... Hope we don't need a tow. I've been double checking everything too. When I bought mine, I flew to LA and drive it to NorCal. When I got home I found ALL CV bolts about to fall off! Not sure what kept them on. 7 hours on the road with no problems until I looked under it when I got home. I had no tools with me on the drive. My 12pt CV tool in my box in the garage. I'm sure glad they did not come loose on the road. Moral of the story, check your CV's!
I didn't think there was an untouched bolt on the car. I didn't check these cause they were new calipers .
Started putting my tool box together as well. After todays drive I just realized I might want to put some TP in there
If that happened to me with the wife in the car I would have to include toilet paper in the checklist!! Glad you came through that okay. Happy motoring, in your future trips!
Ian Stott
Moncton
Canada
This is exactly the situation that makes me cringe when I think of those people who've installed 'upgrade' rear brakes and have no more emergency brake.
Glad it's all okay!
Yep, talk about a scary moment!! Cars at that intersection are always going 60-65mph when the light is green!!
We were lucky!
I second the CV Bolts check!!! I have had some loosen up on me but I noticed before it was a problem!!
Your car is looking great and it has been fun putting it together!
PS: Wow jt914-6 flew out from Arkansas to help you???
Congrats. I have the brake switch, i'll drop it off.
For those on the world awhile back questioning we old timers calling it an "e-brake" or an "emergency brake"
~ & not a " 'parking brake' ... that I [you] don't need anyway when you're parking...." etc.
Point made!!!!
Thanx Lennie & glad the ole e-brake worked for you & the cables didn't bind up!
Thank goodness for a working E-Brake!
Especially in that intersection! One road is a 50MPH speed limit, the other was a 55. Could have been toast for sure.
yup, EMERGENCY brake. new cars tend to lack them and only have a parking brake (Pee - Brake) some new hondas I could drive all day long with the Pee-brake on and not even notice it. heck the rear drums were so tiny they made teh drums on my VW Bug look massive!!!
the idea of the E-brake goes back to the days of single circuit hydrolic brakes. then your only back up was the E-brake. since the mid sixties duel circuit brakes have become the norm so the need for the E-brake is less.
I am surprised that in the above story that all hydrolic braking was lost when only the front caliper leaked. with the dual circuit system, the driver still should have had full rear disc brake function, which would be as good as the E-brake.
I'd question why the rear hydrolic syustem did not take over and stop the car. the rear system appear to have failed also. if you only address the front leaking caliper, you have not addressed the non-functinal rear hydrolic system.
Go back and repair your rear hydrolic circuit, it has surely let you down in this case and is dangerous to drive until it is repaired.
All of the fluid draind out of the resevor/master cylinder and out the front right caliper! It was not just leaking a little bit, the caliper split in two when the 4 bolts backed out enough to allow it!
The reservoir is split to avoid having a leak from one circuit drain all the fluid from both circuits. There's a possibility that if Lennie had stepped harder on the pedal or lifted and stepped again, the rear brakes would have functioned, although you still won't stop as fast.
But it's really hard to think of all that in the 1.5 seconds while it's happening.
Lennie did the venting clearances on the rear and I didn't double check them but he said they were set to .004. But, I think he did it before the final bleeding! I guess that could have accounted for the rears not working. They did slow the car a bit but not enough to stop it from even 15 mph!
Holy crap... I'm glad you guys are OK...
I doubt the 914 has a true dual setup.
When bleeding the brakes on a 914, if i open the bleeder screw on just one caliper, the brake pedal goes to the floor with the first push and you will NOT be able to pump it back up to get any brake engagement on any of the wheels until the bleeder screw is closed.
In a scenario where one caliper splits/explodes or a line pops, one would expect the same behavior.
Which is, sudden and complete loss of all 4 brakes.
Andy
Just got home and I'm cathing up on the thread. Trust me, I was pumping the hell out of the brakes. I understand the theory on the resivoir being divided. But now that everything is back together and rebled, I can lock up all four brakes. The master cylinder and all four calipers are brand new (rebuilts) and seem to function. So do I need to investigate further? Is anyone going to want to be in front of me in the caravan to Tahoe?
The factory manuals state that it's a dual circuit system and that you should still have braking power in the event of a line failure (or similar). BUT, there seems to be an overwhelming lack of information regarding how when and why this safety feature comes into play.
Having been in the car I can say that there was very minimal, if any, ability to stop the car! I felt it slow as Lennie pressed the brake but it would not stop if there was nothing else to slow it down even with the pumping!! Thats why I yelled "grab the e-brake"!
Powered by Invision Power Board (http://www.invisionboard.com)
© Invision Power Services (http://www.invisionpower.com)