Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

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Snowgeek
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Snowgeek »

Same as all the others that have bleed ports.

Tip: Durring the bleed process you are going to need to keep an eye on that resevoir fluid level. It is easy to get into the process and then forget to top it off. As soon as it runs dry and you pull in air you are back to the begining.

Are you familiar with the general old school bleed procedure now?

1. Push the pedal down and hold.
2. Go to the caliper and open the bleed port....fluid comes out......close the bleed port
3. Let the pedal up
4. Repeat is process over and over untill only fluid comes out of all 3 calipers.

Ok now at the pinched off line your procedure will look this

1. Push the pedal down and hold.
2. Go to the caliper and unclamp the hose....fluid comes out...... reclamp the hose
3. Let the pedal up

Depending on the hose clamp you have you might be well advised to have a few extra clamps around......they like to give up the ghost after a few rounds of tightening at the same spot.

Hope this helps
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Wiley
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Wiley »

Thanks. Was thinking about it and decided Due to how hard i had to clamp it im worried about damaging the hose and thus letting air in. Im going to reattach the caliper, bleed it normal and then reclamp it
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Snowgeek »

If you do reattach the caliper just make sure the pistons are held back in the caliper body with a piece of wood or something.

You could also cut the line and plug it.....if you could find something that would plug it well. This would add one more part you had to replace when you get off that forsaken hill ](*,)

One other thought that a friend of mine and i were talking about is running a new brake line from the mc to just the front brakes......not so sure this is a good idea but just one more idea in the pot.

Also is your e brake working on the one good side?

Ryan
2004 Astro (was AWD now 4X4) 125,000 miles: purchased April 2012
Colorado Camper Van poptop
4" Overland lift, Rancho 5000 Cooper AT3 245/75/16 C,
4x4 - NP236 Transfercase
Propex HS2211 propane heater
I am copying a few of you hope you don't mind!

See my build here
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by doyoulikeithere »

I'm a bit confused. Maybe I missed it....
Does the caliper actually leak if you unclamp the rubber line and put a block of wood in it?
Are you able to get both rear wheels off yet?
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Wiley »

All orher 3 wheels have lugs that want to round, so cant get them off till i get to a shop. I stopped at just about every auto store looking for a toolkit to remove them yesterday with no luck. One good strange thing is if one person has success selling something everyone copies them in latin america so all autoshops are on the same couple blocks, then it switches to something else like here was paint. Talk about competition. Theres a road in mexico where for a mile theres a hundred or so street vendors all selling shrimp and trying to wave you down, its bizarre.

I managed to get the piton back in so theres wood now but going to clamp it for good measure as it was leaking fluid before i originally took it off.
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Stroverlander »

Can you tell where the caliper was leaking from? Did the piston extend out too far and leak?
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Wiley »

I made it down the hill and to the city with a cheverolet dealership, thank you all for your help its like you were there with me. From here i should be alright

I think it leak from the piston as it was damaged from metal and had a torn boot.

I mentioned on my blog i had tried to get a different chevy dealer here to do a break job as i cant get the lugs off but left and then forgot in the 4 months i was parked. I believe my negligence, along with everything sitting for so long by the salty carribbean is what caused the problem as all the sliding parts of the calipers look in rough shape.

Expensive lesson learned
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Snowgeek »

So what did it.... Or did you just go for it with out brakes :-s

Glad you are being able to move on!! :cheers:

Ryan
2004 Astro (was AWD now 4X4) 125,000 miles: purchased April 2012
Colorado Camper Van poptop
4" Overland lift, Rancho 5000 Cooper AT3 245/75/16 C,
4x4 - NP236 Transfercase
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I am copying a few of you hope you don't mind!

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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by MountainManJoe »

Well that you're in the clear now, I gotta know ... how did the rotor "explode". Seized caliper?
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Wiley »

The caliper is damaged so i think it siezed though the lack of ebrake also makes my non mechanIcal guess lean towards that causing problems.

Irregardless i gravity bleed all 4 calipers and tested on the smaller hills i had already come from. It was ok but not great so i went for it. Wasnt terrible but wasnt pretty and of course the was both a cow in the road and after a different broke down car taking up my lane but it worked out fine. The pic showed the worst of it i was wrong about farther below but i dont think i could have made it with zero brakes

Turns out the mc is damaged, let a mechanic look but never mentioned it to him he found out on his own. The plus side is he offered me up his place though i politely declined. How many of your mechanics do that?
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Wiley »

Im now relatively fully functional and suspect the calipers. As mentioned i embarassingly admit negligence. Sitting for 4 months by the salty sea has destroyed my calipres. That wore my rotors and brakes quickly as they only had 15k on them. I had looked while parked and things seemed ok so decided to fix in ecuador, costly mistake. I located new rotors and had new pads, so took apart and cleaned the calipers thoroughly though 1 pin wouldnt budge. It will get me home but ill need 4 new calipres as well, an expensive lesson. Keep those calipres in good condition. They are surprisingly simple for such important equipment. I also disregarded the mechanic on the master cylinder and rebleed the brakes with a 2x4 as he had proved more harm than good, so now im back to normal. Thanks for all the help consider this thread closed.
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