brake woes

[chwhite0783]

Anyone ever have a rock solid pedal but no brake function. Just happened to me and made me wreck a brandy new nissan. Old lady was lost n slammed on brakes and i had nowhere to go. Tractor trailer on right cars on left. She went from 60 to 5 on a major highway in a flash. Btw wont do it everytime you step on brakes.

 

[red]

either master cylinder or airpack. Any pics of the carnage? No injuries hopefully.

 

[chwhite0783]

Luckily no injuries. No pics but i can guarantee it wasnt pretty.

 

[TrailLifeBill]

By rock solid, do you mean absolutely no compression - or just normal solid feeling brake?? Had a piece of equipment last month that had an intermittent "rock solid" (not normal) pedal. Come to find out, an adjacent bracket was loose and occasionally wiggled into a position where it jammed the pedal linkage. Fortunately, it wasn't on a road vehicle - but it reminded me of your situation.

 

[chwhite0783]

Exactly

 

[chwhite0783]

Exactly, but everything is tight n not moving. Possibly brake adjustment?

 

[AceHigh]

I had it happen. Push on brakes and pedal went about half way down and would travel no farther. Absolutely no brakes at all. I was able to stop with the parking brake.

I replaced the airpac and truck was good to go.

 

[doghead]

Have you ever bled your brakes?

Have you ever done a full brake inspection and adjustment?

Have you ever looked in your mastercylinder?

 

[chwhite0783]

I have bled brakes have gone thru. I know almost ready for adjustment. I more wanna lean towards an air pack due to its inconsistency. Brake adj would be more consistant. Air in brakes would be all the time. It does it more on a hard application but again out of 30 tries it did it 3 times

 

[rustystud]

I have bled brakes have gone thru. I know almost ready for adjustment. I more wanna lean towards an air pack due to its inconsistency. Brake adj would be more consistant. Air in brakes would be all the time. It does it more on a hard application but again out of 30 tries it did it 3 times

There is a situation that can happen if your brake linkage is out of adjustment. The rod that pushes into the master cylinder can "jam" against the "lip" of the master cylinder giving you a feel of rock hard brakes but actually you will have no brakes at all. To inspect for this pull back the master cylinder boot and inspect the apply rod for looseness.

 

[doghead]

Also, a look at the inside bottom of your fluid reservoir is needed.

You could have a return port plugged with rust.

Use a flashlight and watch for the return streams while releasing the pedal with your hand.