Subject: <VV> brake lockup

[Bill Elliott]

I had something similar to this happen once on a SAAB Sonett. Was driving and tapped the brakes and the right front disk locked up. (Was interesting on 
the DC Beltway at 60mph). I was able not to spin and got the car off the road. After it cooled down, it would roll, but the brakes were spongy.

I assumed that the lockup was due to an old flex hose and I was right...completely swollen shut internally (yet looked great). The sponginess may have 
been cured with just the new hoses, but was definitely cured with a bleed. My guess is that the brake got so hot that it boiled the brake fluid out of the 
caliper. 

A good time for a set of The Source bradied hoses.

Bill Elliott

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 13:13:07 -0400, mhicks130 at cox.net wrote:

>> ------------------------------
>> 
>> Two additional points:
>> 1) A weak brake hose can cause a spongy pedal feel as well as poor shoe  
>> return. You might want to inspect them thoroughly (or just replace them).
>> 2) Normal shoe clearance is .030 to .050".  In the manual, they  mention 
>> tightening the brake adjuster to obtain a light drag of the  shoes then backing it 
>> off 1 1/4 turns and checking the pedal height.  Loosen the parking brake 
>> cable at the front of the transmission before  adjusting the brake clearance.
>> Craig N.
>> 
>> ------------------------------

>The brakes felt absolutely great before the lockup - no soft or spongy feel at all.  I've been driving the car for a little over a week now and the brakes were 
one of the things that have really impressed me about this car (the other is the engine).  They feel good and they work good.  I don't have to press hard to 
get them to work like I have on other Corvairs I've driven.  There's more effort than a modern power assisted disk brake car but still pretty nice.  I was very 
surprised to have this happen. I'm not driving it until I've had the drum off and had a little look see at the brake guts to see what may have happened.  I'm 
definitely going to bleed it and meybe even change out all the fluid.

>mike

> ________


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