BrakeTroubleshooting

Brake Troubleshooting

Binding Brakes

Binding brakes (especially at the rear of the car) are often caused by a failure inside the flexible rubber hose. The inside of the hose collapses allowing brake fluid out but not allowing it to return.

Master Cylinder

Often with these cars the brake master cylinder fails. You know this is the problem if you have fluid but no brake pressure. You will need to have the appropriate tools to change it out. 1st remove the plastic covers on the steering column. 2nd, remover the bolts holding the column up and drop the column out of the way. Then you will need loosen the bolts holding the master cylinder in place under the dash. There is a plate that holds this. Drop it down about 10 inches. From here you will need to obtain some open ended wrenches for taking off the brakes lines. You need the type that cover 75 percent of the bolt. Once you have swapped the master you must bleed the system of all air and clear out all of the bad fluid as well. Feel free to edit this. Written by JJ the one guy here that is not a mechanic...

On 8-1-09 Tony Natoli added... Wrenches for brake lines are metric and are commonly called "Flaring Wrenches". The exact sizes I know not. If unavailable or if thay still tend to strip the nut... best to "cut to the chase" and use a good pair of "Vice-Grip" pliers before the nuts are ruined. The "toothmarks" left by these pliers used once can be filed down easily and then your regular wrenches or flaring wrenches should work well in refastening them. The biggest problem you could encounter is having to re-flare the lines if they won't seal or they get damaged, or you need to replace the nut. Special Flaring tools are then required. Hopefully we won't need to go there. Lastly, some other hints are to REMOVE the steering wheel, the seat, and then pad the floor over the seat tracks... use a good cool light... and have some help to hand you tools or hold the light.