Someone Else's Problem: 1000lbs. Lighter! 1987 Mercury Colony Park

Ugh... can't things be nice for a bit longer? Something is up with the brakes again and now I'm seeing fluid residue on the brake booster running down under the master cylinder. I'm not sure if it's from opening the resivor to check level and seeing some fluid come out or if it's been leaking for a while. Either way, pedal travel has skyrocketed. FFS.
 
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I knew this felt familiar, just didn’t want to believe it. Blew the rear brake line.

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I can’t deal with this today. I have to stop at grandmas and then have dinner with my parents. Sunday is possible, but I don’t want to spot repair this and move on, will do a full line front to back and probably the caliper rubbers as well because those are original.
 
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Yeah, I have a couple copper looking lines on the pieces that go from each drum. I guess that’s the NiCopp you’re talking about.

@thomas, brake lines suck no matter what, I’ve never enjoyed it and find it to be one of the worst things to do on a car. Haven’t done fuel line or tank work yet so I’m sure that’s higher on the list.
 
Having removed and reinstalled the 23 gallon tank on the Fleetwood, near half full, I can tell you that I'd rather do that a few times than redoing Nate's stainless lines :ROFLMAO:.

To be fair, the Caddies tank is plastic, that definitely helps bit. But still..
 
We are the last shop in town that makes brake lines while you wait, so everyone comes to us with their rusted, broken and dirty bits. Even taking measurements from that and making new ones is tedious at best. I’m just glad I don’t have to actually install them. ?
 
Yeah, skip over stainless unless you have the proper bending and flaring tools, and the car is already torn apart. Don't try to retrofit them in, it's not worth your sanity :-D

And if you replace the wheel cylinders double check the flare nut size before you leave the store with them, you might end up needing some oddly sized metric line wrench for those while everything else fits with imperial sizes. Stupid modern parts.
 
Cool, shop gave me an estimate and will have it fixed this week.

Remember when I said I was done spending money on this bitch for the year? That went out the window. Since they listened and will be doing the front solid line and the rubber hoses for the calipers, I figured that they should fix the power steering leaks as well. While underneath checking for the busted line, I hadn't realized how bad the power steering leak got with how coated so many components were. Free rust prevention, but it is a mess under there.

This also gets me out of having to rebleed the brakes from October's rear drum job, while they weren't horrible this entire time, I had uneven pull in the front.
 

YOU HAD TO BLEED THE BRAKES WHILE FILLING THE MASTER CYLINDER. HOW THE FUCK DID YOU MISS THIS?

I brought it back after driving it and thinking the pedal felt a little spongey. I pulled under a tree because it's full sun, 90+ around 30C outside. Found fluid in the same damn spot the brake line broke in. And a master cylinder leak.

I'm really annoyed with trying not to be a dick with "Only I know how to do things" and trusting the professional. The mechanic told me that "you won't lose all braking with a master cylinder leak, just keep an eye on it."

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We need a facepalm under the Like button. I find it hard to trust professionals when it comes to old cars.
 
The mechanic told me that "you won't lose all braking with a master cylinder leak, just keep an eye on it."

I think your "mechanic" is either a moron, or they're trying to kill you.

That ridiculous.

It's true that brake systems are split systems (front & rear) and if you loose all fluid in one system, the other should still work, that's the point of a dual system.

But that's intended for the situation you have encountered. Rusty or damaged lines.

If the master itself has a problem, all bets are off.

And besides, only having half a braking system is stupid dangerous, and a shop saying that 'oh, it's fine that your brakes leak, just keep an eye on it.' sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

It might be time to find another shop.
 
It’s fucking bullshit.

I originally thought I should get a new booster with all of that corrosion. For some reason, nobody online has it and won’t until the end of October, except for Autozone, which I don’t want to trust Duralast for a mid $80 booster. So new plan will be to remove master cylinder and replace it (those are in stock weirdly) then try and sand away the rust on the booster and repaint it with something like POR15 which I’ve had because I thought I wanted to paint some under body panels that I never did a couple years ago. The can has lived in my basement so it should still be good. After that, hopefully the brake leak saga can end.
 
Replaced the master cylinder, no more leaks. I did notice when loosening the brake lines, they were not as tight as I would like. Not like, remove with my fingers loose but it didn’t take a lot force to remove the brake line nuts. Either way, because I got a new MC, I replace it after bench bleeding it. Of course I’ll need to reveled, but at least fluid is not spraying out when I press the pedal.

It’s very possible it was just a loose_nut.

if I can be fucked to do it, the last of the original brake lines is from master cylinder to the splitter on the frame rail. Everything else is new. ?
 
Washed.

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Fixed the exhaust rattling against the fender.

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*grumble grumble*

I think I will suck it up and buy a starter to install this year. Not that the one in it has failed, but if the engine is hot the starter struggles so bad. No need to get stranded.
 
Get a gear reduction starter. They are awesome.
 
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