<VV> more brakes: question

[Geoffrey Stozek]

Interesting.    A few years ago a front brake hose blew on my 92 Silhouette.   
To my surprise, it was as if I had almost no brakes at all.   Pedal to floor and 
at best a slight drag.    Before I convert any of my pre 67 Vairs, I would like 
to know if dual master cylinders are worth having.?   How should one work in the 
event of a failure provided all other components are in perfect working order?  
 Does anyone in VV land actually know?  I'm looking for factual information 
here, not just opinions.  

Thanks
Jeff Stozek
NE IL   




________________________________
From: Tony Underwood <tony.underwood at cox.net>
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Sent: Sat, August 14, 2010 9:52:17 AM
Subject: Re: <VV> more brakes: question

At 10:02 PM 8/13/2010, Matt Nall wrote:



>  I never did figure out why I had no rear brakes when I lost the fronts
>(with dual MC) last night.  I fixed the front and now the rears work fine as
>well but that kinda defeats the purpose of my investment in a dual MC!  To
>recap for anyone who missed it I blew a front wheel cylinder last night and
>lost all four brakes... pedal went right to the floor easily.  I did pump it
>plenty and it produced no effect.
>
>=================================================================
>
>
>Get another MC... that one is most likely leaking internally.



This might not help...

The dual master cylinder concept is fine in theory but in practice 
it's not always that functional.  I've been doing this stuff for a 
while, and I've done a bit of brake work in my times.


Back When, I installed a dual master cylinder, big brakes, swapped 
out all the lines etc on my first '66 Plymouth Satellite.  Along the 
way I had a wheel cylinder cup leak and by the time I could get it 
home I had almost no brakes, front bowl was empty, rear bowl fine, 
still almost no brakes, best it would do was slowly "drag" to a stop 
with pedal to the floor.    After fixing the master cylinder, brakes 
were fine.  Ditto my brother's '67 Dodge Coronet, which had a leaky 
rear wheel cylinder, emptied the MC bowl and HE had practically no 
brakes.  Another adventurer I knew had a '69 Super-Bee all tricked 
out, removed the self-adjusters because "they make the brakes drag a 
little and it slows me down".  Uh huh.  One of the brake shoes' 
hardware came loose (either too much slack or installed wrong) and 
the cylinder blew out, front right, and HE had no brakes, nearly put 
him into a ditch.

Now:  One of the 'Vairs here had a similar situation, leaky wheel 
cylinder, drained the MC bowl, brakes were barely functional and 
pedal was on the floor.  Someone else with a '69 500 coupe, similar 
situation, empty MC bowl, almost no brakes.


The dual MC is no guarantee you're still gonna have anything 
resembling effective brakes on one end or the other if something 
fails.  The best you can expect is marginal (if that) braking ability 
with what you have left.

At least this is my experience.





tony..


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