Urgent!! I Can't Brake Right Away!!

my brake pedal has been going to the floor in my 74 nova. I have manual drum brakes. I looked under the master cylinder cap adn the resevoir furthest to the back (primary?) is really low, but the furthest to the front (secondary?) is full. Is this the way it should be? Why else could the brake pedal be going to the floor? thx.

- nick

Sounds like you have a blown wheel cylinder in one of your rear brake drums, or possibly a bad brake line. It will be easy to tell once you pull off the brake drum because most likely it will be fluid soaked.

Ditto on the leak somewhere. Look at the back of the master first, it might be running down the firewall, even possibly inside the car. Fill up the master, give the pedal a few pumps them look for the puddle under the car.

I forget which reservoir does what, they are probably the same size on a manual drum set up. If they aren't, the bigger one is for the front brakes. You can easily trace the brake lines to be sure.

Bob

thx. the guy at Advance said the same- I prolly blew a wheel cylinder. It wasn't that bad a a few days back, but its getting REALLY bad. I almost caused a 5-car pile up on S 275 in Tampa!! I felt my back end swaying so I NEED TO FIX THIS...NOW. Is it a "huge" project/take it to the shop (i hate saying that) or is it another easy one? prolyl a project...otherwise I wouldn't be asking, huh? : ) thx for the help though.

It's not a huge task by any means, but you will need a floor jack and at minimun a basic tool set, and someone to help you out to bleed the brake lines. Ifyou go to a shop they will probably want to replace everything inside your drums and charge you in excess of $200-300 bucks for the back brakes alone. Grab a Chiltons or Haynes manual for your car if your up for the task and it will pretty much walk you through the process of changing a wheel cyl. and the rest of your brake system and tools needed. Hope this helps.
Chris

Wheel cylinders and brake parts in general are best to change in pairs. If one side is bad, the other side may not be far behind.

This is a "while you're at it" situation. If the shoes are soaked, replace them. Some guys wash them with brake clean, which is ok but not my choice. Look at the brake hardware too, the stuff does wear out. You're best off getting the set that does both sides, it'll be nicer to reassemble.

Leave one side of the car assembled and do one side at a time so you can take a look if you need to.

Tips: The longer brake shoe goes on the back of the backing plate. I always start with the back shoe, which is hooked into the emergency brake. Lubricate all metal to metal points with high temp white grease or brake lube. This includes the brake adjuster, backing plate contact areas, emergency brake hardware. Just a thin wipe is all you need.

Bob

well, it isn't the driver side rear....nothing was DRENCHED with fluid. BUT more importantly, I couldn't fit the drum back on the axle!! This seems to have disabled my emergency brake....prolly cuz it has nothing to stop : / with nothing else to drive, i had a lil "bump in" with a Volvo (thank god cuz those things are TANKS). So, am I ready to bring this to a MIDAS or can somebody tell me what else might be happening. Also, how can I get the drum back on? It looks lke the manual is tellnig me I need a special tool to compress the pads. Thats why it isn't going on. It'll fit on one side and be JUST SHY of the other side. tried every angle I could and it didn't work. I depressed the brake while the drum was off.....bad idea? Thanks, guys (and girls).

-Nick

Pushing the pedal with the drum off is not a good thing. You may have to pop the brake bleeder on that wheel cyclinder to get the shoes to retract. The tops of the shoes have a radius to them that has to be against the brake anchor for the drum to be on. You may have displaced your parking brake equailzer (runs horizontally between the shoes and emergency brake arm).

Try putting it back together so it can be towed to a shop. Midas is extremely expensive from what I've heard about them. Ask around for a local independent shop that has a good reputation.

Bob