Hi Joe,
Sorry to hear about your "suprise". I would trace the brake line down towards
the frame until you find your leak. It would sound from your description that
it is not leaking at your MC and more than likely you have a break in the line.
The larger rear reservoir holds fluif for the front brake system and when you
pressed the brakes there was imbalance in the PDWA which triggered the brake
switch on top of the PDWA causing your brake light to come on. From the PDWA
the brake line runs down to a brass? fitting that is fixed to your frame right
behind the drivers side front wheel. From there two lines split, one going to
the drivers side front and the other running along the front frame cross member
and over to the passenger side front brake hose.
At this point the system is pumping air and you will need to rebleed the
system anyways so the easiest way to find the leak might be to have someone
press the brakes while you look for the leak. You should see or hear where the
leak is coming from by listening for the escaping air. A visual inspection may
save you that step. Depending on where the leak is you might be able to
accomplish this without jacking the car up.
Hopefully the MC is fine since a brake line is much cheaper than a MC. You
didnt mention the condition of the brake system and if you had done any
replacement of brake lines in the past. If they are original and the leak is in
one of the lines then I would encourage you to check the entire system to
verify the condition of all the lines.
Recently in my Mazda truck a rear line went south under heavy braking during a
chain reaction stop. I had to brake firmly but was in no danger of striking the
car in front of me, until the line burst, then the pedal went almost to the
floor before catching again. While I really wasnt close to hitting the car in
front of me it sure didnt feel so well to have that no brake sensation for that
split second. It is a good thing your car let you know before you were on the
road.
Check it out and let us know what you find.
Aaron
Aaron Cropley
71 TR6 (Throttle Body Injection!)
http://www.triumphowners.com/108
Topsham, Maine
-----Original Message-----
From: jmerone@rocketmail.com
To: triumphs@autox.team.net; 6pack@autox.team.net
Sent: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 9:32 AM
Subject: [TR] TR6 brake failure
Good morning all:
After a wild and rainy weekend it's actually a nice
sunny Monday here in Vermont so I decided to take the
TR6 to work. It had other ideas. Coming out of the
garage, the brake pedal didn't pump up and the brake
warning light came on. Here's the quick 5 minute
evaluation before I jumped into another car.
The view from above: The rear well of the master
cylinder is empty, but it doesn't look like it's
leaking anywhere, and the brake lines leading down
through the engine bay seem dry.
The view from below: There's a puddle of fluif on the
frame and the ground under the A post area on the
driver's side.
Any ideas on where to look further?
Thanks.
Joe Merone
CF18928
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