Bored? Want to read a story?
Wife came home one day from driving our TB and said to me, the brakes "feel kind of squishy". Ok I'll check it out I said, trying to act all calm but inside knowing that sudden brake squishiness is usually something that can be very bad in a short amount of time. I go out, press on the brakes and sure enough they go down almost to the floor. Look under the vehicle, and see a puddle of fluid under the engine, check on the brake fluid reservoir and you guessed it, almost empty!
In the garage it goes. Spent some time inspecting all the calipers, lines, and found just one area of brake fluid leaking, right where the master cylinder connects to the brake booster. Hmm, seems like a bad master cylinder. Had an assistant pump the brakes up and could see fluid running down the booster. New master cylinder ordered from Rockauto, the gm one. (if the original lasted 288,000 miles, that's just what I'm putting back on it)
Now to get the old one off. Took one look at the 2 lines and rusty line connectors and my job started looking like it might take longer than the original plan. (Don't they all though on older vehicles, especially here in western NY rust belt). I have an ancient gallon of Kroil that I use for penetrating fluid, put some of that on for overnight soaking. Next day, got my flare wrench out, and started working on the first fitting. No dice! Working it back and forth in small increments was futile, I could not loosen it even the tiniest amount without seeing the line start to turn with the fitting, and you know what happens then. (hint: line breaks and swearing follows) Started thinking about just cutting the line and then going with a six point socket to get the fitting off. New line would be needed of course, and decided to follow that line to see where it went and how hard to replace (both of them). It goes to the ABS unit, and looks extremely difficult to get at, as in I might have to remove ABS unit to get to the lines. A rust covered ABS unit underneath the driver seat on the bottom of the vehicle. What happens then? ABS unit from the junk yard? Replacing every brake line that plugs into it? For the first time, I actually considered not fixing this, and getting rid of the trailblazer. (other projects on it as well, and it's really rusting badly). In the end, I decided that if I was going to get rid of my trailblazer, it wasn't going to be because I was unable to fix something. So one way or the other, I was fixing this brake problem.
So, back to the fitting. Decided to try using my oxy torch to heat up the fittings a little, the idea was to expand the fitting out away and maybe crack it loose. Even though the plastic reservoir might suffer damage, at this point I'm already replacing it so why not try? So a little bit of heat at very low flame, and much to my shock and surprise it worked! Flare wrench cracked the fitting loose and off it came, with some steady back and forth tightening and loosening, more on the loosening end of course. Woohoo this project just got a lot easier! Got both fittings off, and old master cylinder off. Got the new one all bench bled and setup, and onto the vehicle. Got my assistant in to pump the brakes, went to the passenger rear, started bleeding. Once things got pressured up, I could hear rain falling on the papers I had still under the engine on the floor! WTF! Sent my assistant back to playing on his computer and went back to square one investigating.
Same scenario, brake fluid on booster where master cylinder connects, what in god's name is going on! Puzzle to figure out, calm down and work the problem. Got a mirror and a light and studied underneath the master cylinder. The 2 brake lines from the master cylinder run right underneath the master cylinder before heading off to the ABS unit. Had assistant pump up brakes again and lo and behold watched as fluid sprayed out of the top of one of the brake lines, all over the bottom of the master cylinder and maybe even booster, can't remember. It's right where the hard line turns into the braided steel line. These master cylinder brake lines have a "mid section" of braided steel, I suppose instead of the "spiral" that older vehicles have to flex when bumps etc are driven over.
Follow this line to the abs unit. This thing is a nightmare, it's on the bottom of the vehicle and all 6? lines plug into it from the top of the abs unit, they all have 90 degree turns. And it's all rusty as hell looking up at it. Studied the line I had to replace, and using a mirror, started spraying penetrating oil onto the fitting, and luckily, and I think really luckily, it was a fitting closer to the edge of the ABS unit, I could actually work a flare wrench on it. It looked like I even had some degrees to turn the wrench if needed. So, put my wrench on (with mirror helping), held it tight with one hand, and hit it once with a hammer to try and loosen it. It came loose, thank god. It's rusty up on top of that thing, but not really exposed to the elements, I think that saved me. Worked it off slowly because I'm watching it in a mirror and can only turn small amounts due to tight space, but I got it off! Got the entire brake line off, cut it once with a dremel to get off easier, measured it and off to carquest. Usually I go to napa but it was sunday and only carquest open. I did notice the brake line seemed fatter than normal and even said 5/16 on it.
Wife came home one day from driving our TB and said to me, the brakes "feel kind of squishy". Ok I'll check it out I said, trying to act all calm but inside knowing that sudden brake squishiness is usually something that can be very bad in a short amount of time. I go out, press on the brakes and sure enough they go down almost to the floor. Look under the vehicle, and see a puddle of fluid under the engine, check on the brake fluid reservoir and you guessed it, almost empty!
In the garage it goes. Spent some time inspecting all the calipers, lines, and found just one area of brake fluid leaking, right where the master cylinder connects to the brake booster. Hmm, seems like a bad master cylinder. Had an assistant pump the brakes up and could see fluid running down the booster. New master cylinder ordered from Rockauto, the gm one. (if the original lasted 288,000 miles, that's just what I'm putting back on it)
Now to get the old one off. Took one look at the 2 lines and rusty line connectors and my job started looking like it might take longer than the original plan. (Don't they all though on older vehicles, especially here in western NY rust belt). I have an ancient gallon of Kroil that I use for penetrating fluid, put some of that on for overnight soaking. Next day, got my flare wrench out, and started working on the first fitting. No dice! Working it back and forth in small increments was futile, I could not loosen it even the tiniest amount without seeing the line start to turn with the fitting, and you know what happens then. (hint: line breaks and swearing follows) Started thinking about just cutting the line and then going with a six point socket to get the fitting off. New line would be needed of course, and decided to follow that line to see where it went and how hard to replace (both of them). It goes to the ABS unit, and looks extremely difficult to get at, as in I might have to remove ABS unit to get to the lines. A rust covered ABS unit underneath the driver seat on the bottom of the vehicle. What happens then? ABS unit from the junk yard? Replacing every brake line that plugs into it? For the first time, I actually considered not fixing this, and getting rid of the trailblazer. (other projects on it as well, and it's really rusting badly). In the end, I decided that if I was going to get rid of my trailblazer, it wasn't going to be because I was unable to fix something. So one way or the other, I was fixing this brake problem.
So, back to the fitting. Decided to try using my oxy torch to heat up the fittings a little, the idea was to expand the fitting out away and maybe crack it loose. Even though the plastic reservoir might suffer damage, at this point I'm already replacing it so why not try? So a little bit of heat at very low flame, and much to my shock and surprise it worked! Flare wrench cracked the fitting loose and off it came, with some steady back and forth tightening and loosening, more on the loosening end of course. Woohoo this project just got a lot easier! Got both fittings off, and old master cylinder off. Got the new one all bench bled and setup, and onto the vehicle. Got my assistant in to pump the brakes, went to the passenger rear, started bleeding. Once things got pressured up, I could hear rain falling on the papers I had still under the engine on the floor! WTF! Sent my assistant back to playing on his computer and went back to square one investigating.
Same scenario, brake fluid on booster where master cylinder connects, what in god's name is going on! Puzzle to figure out, calm down and work the problem. Got a mirror and a light and studied underneath the master cylinder. The 2 brake lines from the master cylinder run right underneath the master cylinder before heading off to the ABS unit. Had assistant pump up brakes again and lo and behold watched as fluid sprayed out of the top of one of the brake lines, all over the bottom of the master cylinder and maybe even booster, can't remember. It's right where the hard line turns into the braided steel line. These master cylinder brake lines have a "mid section" of braided steel, I suppose instead of the "spiral" that older vehicles have to flex when bumps etc are driven over.
Follow this line to the abs unit. This thing is a nightmare, it's on the bottom of the vehicle and all 6? lines plug into it from the top of the abs unit, they all have 90 degree turns. And it's all rusty as hell looking up at it. Studied the line I had to replace, and using a mirror, started spraying penetrating oil onto the fitting, and luckily, and I think really luckily, it was a fitting closer to the edge of the ABS unit, I could actually work a flare wrench on it. It looked like I even had some degrees to turn the wrench if needed. So, put my wrench on (with mirror helping), held it tight with one hand, and hit it once with a hammer to try and loosen it. It came loose, thank god. It's rusty up on top of that thing, but not really exposed to the elements, I think that saved me. Worked it off slowly because I'm watching it in a mirror and can only turn small amounts due to tight space, but I got it off! Got the entire brake line off, cut it once with a dremel to get off easier, measured it and off to carquest. Usually I go to napa but it was sunday and only carquest open. I did notice the brake line seemed fatter than normal and even said 5/16 on it.
