Stupid Brakes
God, what a horrible weekend I had. Started off Thursday when I hit the brakes pretty hard, so I didn't rear end the car in front of me. The brake peddle held for a second, then it went all the way to the floor. Had to steer out of the way. So I didn't hit the car in front of me.
I managed to pull into a small neighborhood and take a look. Brake fuild leaking from the rear passenger. Car not brakeing very well. I managed to take my chances, and drive home. I was only about a mile away from home. Taking it easy, using the e-brake, and down shifting. I get home in one piece.
Friday, I break the lugnuts loose. And get the rear of the car up on jackstands. Finish taking off the lugnuts. And to my amaze. The tires wouldn't come off. Pulled, pushed, kicked, sprayed them down with that rust lube stuff, cussed at them, said nice words to them. Still nothing. Finally, I busted out the heating torch. Heated the wheels up. Pulled, pushed, kicked, etc. Still nothing. After hours a few hours of this. And the easiest parts of this whole project, of taking off the tires turning in hours of no luck. I give up for the dray.
Saturday, Busted that heating torch again, and heated them up nice and good. And finally the bloody wheels come off. Had both wheels off in about 1/2 hours of starting. I go to take the brake drum off. Still nothing. No movement at all. Beated them with hammer, heated them up, etc. After about 2 hours of me getting no where with them. I call my dad. He comes shows up at around 2:30pm. He tried a bit with no luck. He then asks me, 'are you planning on getting new brake drums. And my reply being, 'sure whatever, they are only 15 bucks a piece'. He then processed to burst out the good old air tools that he brought over. Took us about another 2 hours to get the drums off with the air tools. By this time it was around 5pm. We take off to Auto Zone to get parts. Brake shows, two wheel cyclinders, brake cleaner, brake drum.
We go ahead and replace both the wheel cyclinders, brake shoes, and bleed the brakes. We don't finish till around 2am in the morning. What a freaking pain in the rear that was. And it turns out I missed something, cause the e-brake doesn't work. Should be a quick fix, since I think I know what I missed.
96 Geo Prizm. 140k miles.
The old brake shoes on the passenger side had no pad at all left. Pure metal to metal. Which I'm sure is what my brakes have to making noise for the past few months, and that I keep on putting off for. And the reason to why the front part of the wheel cyclinder blew off, and leaked brake fuild all over. Not enough presure to keep the wheel cyclinder together, with the brake shoe pad all worn down.
God what a long post, and a long weekend I had.
I managed to pull into a small neighborhood and take a look. Brake fuild leaking from the rear passenger. Car not brakeing very well. I managed to take my chances, and drive home. I was only about a mile away from home. Taking it easy, using the e-brake, and down shifting. I get home in one piece.
Friday, I break the lugnuts loose. And get the rear of the car up on jackstands. Finish taking off the lugnuts. And to my amaze. The tires wouldn't come off. Pulled, pushed, kicked, sprayed them down with that rust lube stuff, cussed at them, said nice words to them. Still nothing. Finally, I busted out the heating torch. Heated the wheels up. Pulled, pushed, kicked, etc. Still nothing. After hours a few hours of this. And the easiest parts of this whole project, of taking off the tires turning in hours of no luck. I give up for the dray.
Saturday, Busted that heating torch again, and heated them up nice and good. And finally the bloody wheels come off. Had both wheels off in about 1/2 hours of starting. I go to take the brake drum off. Still nothing. No movement at all. Beated them with hammer, heated them up, etc. After about 2 hours of me getting no where with them. I call my dad. He comes shows up at around 2:30pm. He tried a bit with no luck. He then asks me, 'are you planning on getting new brake drums. And my reply being, 'sure whatever, they are only 15 bucks a piece'. He then processed to burst out the good old air tools that he brought over. Took us about another 2 hours to get the drums off with the air tools. By this time it was around 5pm. We take off to Auto Zone to get parts. Brake shows, two wheel cyclinders, brake cleaner, brake drum.
We go ahead and replace both the wheel cyclinders, brake shoes, and bleed the brakes. We don't finish till around 2am in the morning. What a freaking pain in the rear that was. And it turns out I missed something, cause the e-brake doesn't work. Should be a quick fix, since I think I know what I missed.
96 Geo Prizm. 140k miles.
The old brake shoes on the passenger side had no pad at all left. Pure metal to metal. Which I'm sure is what my brakes have to making noise for the past few months, and that I keep on putting off for. And the reason to why the front part of the wheel cyclinder blew off, and leaked brake fuild all over. Not enough presure to keep the wheel cyclinder together, with the brake shoe pad all worn down.
God what a long post, and a long weekend I had.