On the way to work this morning, I discovered that when I depressed the brake pedal, the sucker went clear to the floorboard, and I could barely stop. Luckily, thgis happened at 6:30am, so I didn't have to worry about too many cars out there and was able to make it to work without incident. I took a quick look, and discovered that Iw as leaking hydraulic fluid from the right rear... Gotta work though, so I put it on the back burner.
Kev and I went on out to the jobsite after our safety meeting, and continued to adjust some final things on this modernization. Late last week, we were able to use a different laptop with another type of software to get our machine to realize where it was in the hoistway, so today we had to finalize a few things and get it "buttoned up" so it can be turned back over to the contractor. We ran into a few snags late in the day, and stayed an extra hour to finish up, so it was a quarter 'til five in the evening before we made it back to the shop.
Around where I live is a very large shopping district, and I knew that I'd be driving home right in the heart of rush hour, so I wanted to try to make a stopgap fix for my brakes. Just before Kev left, he suggested running a screw up in the brake line on that wheel so that I'd have brakes on at least three tires. Didn't sound like a bad plan to me, so I made the attempt, but the screw I used managed to completely destroy the end of the brake line. All I could do then was crimp the line, and hope for the best. Hey! I had some brakes, so I figured I was good.
I got no more than a mile on the interstate before the brake pads on that side somehow crashed into the inside of the drum, and basically exploded. I had a lot of fun removing the detritus from that brake drum on the side of the road, let me tell you...There's just nothing like doing vehicle repairs on the side of an Interstate during rush-hour. After all of this, I was finally able to get my "wormy" ass to the house.
There's a rule of thumb that states: "70% of a vehicles stopping power comes from the front wheels." and I'm here to say that of the 30% that's left for the rear, 15% is permanently gone. This is the second time that this brake assemble has exploded on me, and I ain't fixing it again. Did I mention that I'm in the market for a new car?
Posted by Johnny - Oh at February 6, 2006 11:08 PM | TrackBackAt least you didn't get into an accident, or run over on the side of the road.
Posted by: Contagion at February 7, 2006 08:06 AMMy dad has a 1995 Lincoln Mark VIII LSC for $4000 available....
Posted by: _Jon at February 9, 2006 06:33 PMIf it's got the AXOD four-speed automatic transmission, give it a bullet 'cuz it ain't worth the $4k. I had a Taurus with that tranny in it, and it would fail every six months or so.
Four thou is a bit out of my price-range just now, but if I had it, I'd come up and look at it. Thanks anyway Bro.
Posted by: Johnny - Oh at February 10, 2006 06:57 AMYou be careful! I've had my brakes fail on me - many years ago. We had a Comet back in the 70's and there was a leak in the brake line... yeah, it's a sinking feeling in more ways than one when the pedal goes down to the floor! Yikes. I was 16 or 17 at the time and I did manage to make it home. Scared the bejesus out of me and I never want to do that again!
Posted by: Teresa at February 12, 2006 12:47 PM