I was riding in a friend's O/T late model car when he hit the brakes, and had none! He got the car stopped safely with the hand brake, so there was no injury or damage (thankfully!). I changed my '59 ford over to a dual master cylinder to keep something like that from happening to it and was wondering if anyone had heard about both sections of a dual system failing at once.
If they both fail at once on a dual system it usually means the rears weren't working to start with, then the fronts failed.
Our '96 F-150 blew them both in the driveway.... hit the brakes, went to the floor...pumped them... went to the floor again....lines were rusted.... lucky as we had just returned from a couple hour trip the day before picking up an engine....
I think the point is that you should either have noticed the diminished braking action, or the switch that senses this and turns on the dummy light on the dash shoulda told you. If you lose all the fluid from one half and use all of the fluid, you shall lose all of your brakes. Does your /did your convertted system have the dummy lite?
I had a brand New Ford F350 crew cab dually split a rear brake line. It was a faulty metal line (bad electro weld on the seam) and when I hit the brakes, pedal to the floor! There was nothing wrong with the fronts and they had fluid but the pedal went right to the floor. Pretty damn exciting since I was towing a 28 ft trailer with 8 custom Harley's inside on my way to a trade show. Fortunately the off ramp had an opposing on ramp and there was no cross traffic. I went right back on I40 until I could slow down some and use the e brake to get off at the next offramp! The guy that was travelling with me in a Semi got on the radio and said W T F ? Luckily I had just gone around him since if I was still following I would have plowed right into the back of the trailer.
I have almost 40 years as a dealership mechanic off and on from 1960 to 2006 and I have seen a hell of a lot more failures of dual master cylinders than I have singles. I have owned over 100 cars from 1957 to present and probably 2/3 of them had single master cyls. I never had a single fail but I've had 3 duals with complete failures.
This has been my experience also. Maybe it's the quality of the modern tubing. I owned a muffler and brake shop for almost 25 years and never saw an epidemic of tubing or M/cyl failure but my 93 Ford Lightning has had 2 brake lines fail in the last 2 years. First the rear line up high close to the hose connection. The next was the front line to the right caliper. The rear line gave a soft pedal. The front line was much worse. I was able to nurse it home but I waited for lulls in traffic. Interesting that the first 3 were all late model Ford trucks.
I had a 1971 Chevelle that I restored, drove it for about 14 years. One day my wife had it out and said the brakes completely failed and she went thru a stop sign. I said "it can't fail once and then have 'em back again". Was I wrong, so I went to the local store. pulled into the very front parking space and NO BRAKES! The car crashed into the giant pane glass. Everyone everywhere stopped 'n gawked,,others ran to see the mess, What a scene.
Its just a master cylinder they wear out just like any other part of the car. I would suggest that you get your e brake working. Problem solved.
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