Bad week for brakes

[wayne petty]

decades ago....  one of the shops i worked for fixed trucks for an aquarium manufacturer...   that owner bought a used F700 tilt cap truck.. used...  he did not let us examine the brakes first.. as it did not stop straight.. he also hired a new driver for it..   question number one for the driver.. ever driven the grapevine...   his answer was yes...  can you drive this.. yes...  he was hired..   they loaded it with nested aquariums..  sent him north to the bay area...  he called about 2 hours later...  the repair shop owner and i went to get the truck from the towing company after they pulled it from the run away pit on the grapevine...

seems..  he had not driven the grapevine before..

we ask him to describe what happened...  he said..   i was out in the number 2 lane as i started down the hill...  i saw all the trucks in the right going slow...  did not understand why..   it got steeper and steeper...   i had to ride the  brakes to stop from speeding out of control... so he reached down and tried to put the 2 speed rear end into low range.. he said.. it seemed to go into neutral..   he just kept riding the brakes.. .. then they failed... so he reached over and pulled the parking brake.. at that point he said the engine died and would not start and he lost all brakes and the power steering quit... he was shaking visibly now...  ( he was in my GTO.. but i was not speediing)

(there is a freeway overhead sign...  TRUCKS SPEED LIMIT 35MPH.. 6% down grade for 5 miles.. TRUCKS USE LOW GEARS ) ((now that i look at it ... it is not properly done....



he said. he got to the left lane and tried to rub off the speed by rubbing the left guardrail...   he saw the runaway ramp and hit it...   the truck stopped just short of going off the end and crashing 70 feed down to the access road below..   needless to say..  he quit his job..  my boss the shop owner finished the delivery..   about half of the nested tanks were damaged.. but not all...

(when he pulled the parking brake.. it was on the back of the transmission and stopped the drive shaft from turning.. this stalled the motor )
(( the tow truck driver told me the last truck that used that ramp was loaded with steel pipe...   he rode to the end and went over..  the trailed followed.... not good..   caltrans has installed a giant culvert for the access road to pass under and continued the runaway ramp up  the hillside.))



when he got back with the truck the owner had no problems with us tearing all the brakes off the truck... seems the right rear wheel cylinder pistons were corroded and seized ..  to make the truck drivable.. some prior forward thinking AH  had put a nail in the brake line .. to block the line..  then screwed it back into the wheel cylinder..   the linings were also replaced.. but they had failed to replace the brass plugs that keep the brakes in adjustment..


the next driver who took that truck north..  over revved the 391HD on the way back up the other side of the grape vine..  blew the radiator fan apart.. kept going.. until he overheated it and bent a bunch of push rods...

it got a rebuilt motor..    after a few months.. it started running bad..  did a compression test.. really weird.. it would come up part way.. then spike at the end of the stroke...  pulled the heads.. found giant grooves where the pistons pins had slid out and wore grooves in the cylinder wall..    it went back to the engine builder for sleeving.. we walked into the back of the shop where the guy was hanging the pistons and had him show us how he put the retaining rings in..    he squeezed them completely together to insert them.. this took the tension out of them so they fell out letting the pins slide out of place...  my boss showed him with another set or retainers that you only squeeze them barely enough to get them in the pin bore..

sorry i got off thread.. with the talk of truck brakes..  i just had to fill you guys in..

[BFS57]

Hello;
I remember that sign! Thats my old stomping ground! I drove that pass for decades!! What a flash back!

Bruce

[Inprimer]

Just got back from Santa Cruz CA, son will be going to  the track with his 96 Trans Am,  the safety checks included Fire ext, no loose stuff in the vehicle  and flushed out brake fluid, anyway, had alignment, wheel balance and tire rotation done at at Firestone,  He used to work there and has a sweet deal, free lifetime tire rotation etc,.What got me was "for $99 we will flush and refill all brake fluid" what a deal, Got a cooking baster, sucked out all the M/C fluid, Q tipped  small amount of residue and re filled it .Flushed each wheel cyl about 5,6 times and went around the whole car. Took about 30 min to do so , no fancy stuff just a car jack and 2 jack stands.Total cost about $5 for DOT 4 fluid, a few rags and a can of hand cleaner, plus it was fun again working with my kid .