Went to leave the garage yesterday and found that I had to push the pedal harder than I normal did. Tried backing up back and forth on the street I live on(thankfully it’s a very small neighborhood so I didn’t have much traffic to deal with) and wound up not being able to stop while I was in reverse. My foot was on the floor with the brake pedal, but I wasn’t stopping at all, maybe slowing down a little bit, but no stopping. Had to drop the trans in drive to get it to stop while I was going backwards. Before I parked the Chevelle last weekend, it had brakes and everything, just had to change the battery(see “embarrassing tales” in second opinion), but even then, the brakes still worked even after I had it changed.
My question is, is there a way to check pressure inside the brake lines without having to jack the car up and removing the wheels?
I’m thinking the brake cylinder is in the upper left of this picture, but not really sure:
er…upper RIGHT, darn missing edit button
You had the pedal floored and no brakes? Manual drums with no power assist, and you got the pedal floored? whistles
Those babies are either seized beyond all beleif, or you’ve actually developed a very nasty leak. Are you sure you had to push HARDER and not just FARTHER? Excess pedal travel, soft spongy pedal, indications of a leak. Would also cause total brake failure, especially in an older car with a single circuit master.
Check the fluid level, check for leaks.
-Matt
If I had pushed the pedal and harder/farther, I probably would have truly made it a Flintstones brake system. It went to the floor going in reverse and was NOT stopping. I got it to stop when going forward, but I had to push it to the floor as well.