ill start from the beginning. bout 2:30 at Slippery Rock Univ. i went to get my truck to go fishin. battery was dead. ok no prob. i was parked on a hill n i pooped the clutch. got r strated. So i got to my last class of the day. i left my engine running for 2 HOURS, turned it off for 30 min, and its dead. had to jump her. ok no prob. so i call my dad, as he got a used battery form the local Advanced and it has a 90 day warranty. i have to go back to that advanced to cash in the deal though. so im comin home, 45 min or so drive and im 1/2 mile from my exit in a construction zone and this is where all hell breaks loose. didnt touch my brakes for 45 min, hit em to start slowin down and they go to the floor. bumper to bumper traffic w/ a brand new caddy infront of me @ 60 w/ no brakes. the fisrt word to come out of my mouth would get me banned if i typed it on here. so i think... leave the truck in "4th" (T-18 so its really like 3rd) use prayers, hope and friction to slow me down. the exit was 1/2 mile DOWN HILL (slight grade) and it has a yield for right turns and Stop for lefts. there was a single truck i barely missed comin in the slow lane at the yield. i had no chioce to do anything else, or it was gonna be me goin over a hill. i got the truck stopped after gearin down another 3/4 mile away in a field. thats the good part. had i decided to go 1 more exit down, i would have benn really F'ed cause its a 280 degree turn that has MAD traffic. some one, possibly myself would have been hurt bad. Old F-250 vs the average car = the car is gonna loose BAD. this was during rush hour, too. needless to say, i had my truck towed to my mechanic and im gonna be truckless @ skool for a week.

 

I've had that feeling before and it sucks! It's easy to say when you're not in that situation but the emergency brake could help even if the juice brakes fail on you. That's always an interesting ride in itself though.
Now i have to ask- when was the last time the brakes were looked at? Did you determine why they failed?
Not nagging, I'm glad you're around to share the experience but we all are tempted to ignore something until it bites us.

 

give it up for the old standard transmission. and good driving I might add

 

CONGRATULATIONS!

You just learned what we old schoolers refer to as GEAR JAMMING

It sucks that it came out of the blue, but you dealt with it.

Now do you realise why I want a CLUTCH in my truck???????


I want to award this man with some kind of a trophy -
Something like an FTE drivers award, for saving the situation.

Mil? Ken? Is that possible?

Call it maybe the "BLUE HEART" for avoiding immanent and obvious vehicular destruction....


~Wolfie sendz

 

The bueaty of a manual tranny.. I barely use my brakes as is. if i had to panick stop with no hydro brakes I would just shift into granny gear, and hit the E brake. lol wouldnt be nice but it would slow down.

 

And why wouldn't this work in an auto tranny? Personally, I do prefer a manual, but right now, all my vehicles are autos. I can downshift just fine in any of them. I believe all of them (1 AOD, 1 E4OD and one Caravan) have overspeed protections on them, so even if you cram them into first (or L) at 60 mph, they will work down through the gears. Less work than a manual (do 1 shift instead of 3-4). Plus, once you do the one shift, you can have both hands on the wheel for potential wild maneuvers.

Jason

 

i determined what my prob was. on the link bt the metal and rubber hose, 3 pin holes showed up and when pressure was applied to the brake, it sparyed the wheel well. i just had my master cyl replaced 2 months ago, and pads checked in Jan. i replaced the front ones last aug and the back were good in both circumstances.

it was a combo of 2% luck, (if ur religious) 97% my guardian angel working a tripple shift (had to be my pap... he was a Ford 300I6 man) and 1% skill.

jroel: in my case, it wouldnt have mattered if i had 2 hand on the wheel or not. A 3 ton truck @ 60 will crush a caddy let alone a Honda. plus if i would have gone up 1-2 more exits, the outcome would have been a lot worse. tight horse shoe bends and Fords dont get along too well. i would have had to litterally stop in the grassy median. the state boys would have loved me for that one!

 

You did the right thing....good job!

 

I had a similar event happen to me. I used the e-brake. I held the release out, and used it as a normal brake. The e-brake has a mechanical linkage so if your hydralic brakes fail, then you will at least have the e-brake.

 

Congratulations on being here to tell your story!

 

I know I'm going to get some static here but that said, here goes,
Since the late 60's, almost all cars and light trucks are equipped with dual braking systems, normally, front and rear, sometimes diagonal,
If a car is maintained properly, the chances of a complete brake failure are remote, but you will suffer a greatly REDUCED braking effort, but never a complete brake failure.
I hear of people who have claimed, "I lost my brakes", I think it is one of several scenarios, 1, they were driving too fast, too close or not paying attention and did not leave themselves an "out" in case of an emergency. 2, The loss of brake pedal caught them by surprise and they didn't know or understand that they had "some" brakes and panicked.
A loss of brakes can happen to anyone but few are ready for it, a complete loss is rare, even in heavy trucks.

 

The front brakes do 80% of the stopping, and almost all cars from 1980 on use a dual reservoir system. This means that if you lose ONE front brake you've lost them both and 80% of your stopping ability. The best thing to do then is tranny brake, grab the ebrake, pray, and hold on.

 

minus the ebrake part, thats what i did. my e brake is almost non existant exept on like 1/2% grades. its horrable. i def lost all stopping ability. to see it squirtin like an open mustard bottle under pressure is really flustering. esp when ur next stop is the parts store... litterally. and i planned to go drag racing the next day (not my truck but go with my dad and his buddies the drive back to skool from the track)

 

FSC... it was immenent. even if i had the slightest brakes, my fluid was running out FAST. 5 pumps emptied out 60% +- of my resivior. i maintain everything on my truck to the point of being ****. itll be 10 degrees outside and if i need an oil change or any fairly easy work done on my college campus, i do it in the parking lot. I changed my plugs 4 weeks ago and if u look @ my gallery, standing in the engine compartment was the scene... exept for 2 things... i had class later that night and didnt have time to change let alone clean my hands and it was windy/ snowing 20 degrees or so. it was a COLD one. i got r done with just enough time to grab a "bagged" lunch form the dining hall and eat it during class. 3 weeks ago i found a loose bolt on my block way back in there and climbed in again to tighten it. heck, if i have to do a brake job here on campus, im sure gonna do it. the cops dont care as long as i clean up. a few even stop and throw the bull with me.

 

Yea dude I go to Purdue and am part of the Purdue offroad club, so far this semester I have participated in one complete rebuild of a 302 in an LTD in a parking garage, Replacing floorboards in a residence hall loading dock, swapped motors in a 73 Chebby....lotsa stuff that shouldn't be possible lol. As far as the brakes that sucks dude, I'm glad your alright. Its too bad it was your front brakes that took a **** cause you can stop w/ no back brakes, I found out today that my 79 on 35's has NO back breaks......pulled the drum off one side and parts literally just fell out.....the other side has so much brake fluid on the tire I'm guessin the entire wheel cylinder exploded, but it still stops pretty damn well w/ only the front disks.....wouldn't let anyone else drive it because of the breaks but I can stop it anywhere i need to...........but I plan on fixin the rears as soon as i get home to our shop.