<VV> Re: Corvair - Brake Problems

Chris & Bill Strickland lechevrier at earthlink.net
Sun Jul 15 19:12:36 EDT 2007


Mai-Brit Lindstad <mlind at online.no> wrote: 
  Hi! I have a corvair Monza Spider Turbo Convertible 1963. suddenly when
I put my feet on the breakpedal it just went right in and no more
brakes. 

Do you have an ideè what happened ? 

-----

No.  But I do know your brakes failed.  Hope nobody was hurt.  

Were you driving the car or sitting, meaning were the brakes hot? If your had been driving spiritedly, you could have boiled the fluid in a wheel cylinder.  If this happened, you need to flush the old fluid out and replace it with a better grade of fluid (higher wet boiling point). 

If you were just sitting parked, you need to find the point of failure, and repair it.  Generally, a sudden pedal to the floor means a catastrophic failure, like a broken hose (aged part), ruptured line (corrosion), failed wheel cylinder (lack of maintenance), or perhaps even broken parts under the dash (your car *is* 44 years old -- stuff occasionally breaks).  A more gradual pedal getting very soft and low could be brakes out of adjustment, a brake fluid leak, or a failing master cylinder.

Ruptured lines and hoses generally leave puddles of fluid on the ground, failed wheel cylinders leaves brake fluid all over the inside of the wheel.  Master cylinders sometimes leak into the interior of the car -- look under the carpets.

If hoses, replace all four -- if wheel cylinders, repair all four -- if lines, replace all of them -- if master cylinder, fix or replace it (may want to consider one of the vendor's dual cylinder replacement kits) -- if just low fluid, find out where it went (brake fluid doesn't evaporate).

Remember, regular brake fluid is quite injurious to automotive paint -- keep it off the outside of the car.  Clean up spills immediately with water and/or alcohol.

Let us know what you found, mailto:virtualvairs at corvair.org

Godspeed,

Bill Strickland



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