Went to drive my Riv and the pedal went to the floor!

Went to take the green Riv out yesterday. Got in the car and the pedal went right to the floor. Didnt get a chance to investigate other than remove the cover off the master. The rear section was empty, the front section was nearly empty. Im going to guess the master went bad. I was so disappointed, I really wanted to drive it around! :rant:

The funny thing is that the master thats in there is the same master I bought the car with 31 years ago. And when I bought the car the master didnt look new. So its likely that its the original to the car. Either way, that master owes me nothing! Im interested in finding out what else, if anything is wrong. Gotta be just the master, everything else is new.

 

Brake fluid has to go somewhere. There has to be a leak. The pedal will go to the floor with no fluid in the master cylinder.

 

Im thinking the seals went bad in the master. Im hoping I see a puddle on the ground under the master. That would make life easy

 

If you don't see any fluid, I bet your booster is full of it. :laugh: And it would be wise to get it out of there before it kills the booster, too.

 

Unbolt the master and pull it forward just a bit. See if there is fluid on the back side of it. It had to go somewhere. If Adam is right, it got sucked into your booster.

 

Not my first rodeo:grin: Unfortunately, I cant get to it till the weekend.

 

Fine, now go over to the Bench and post your contribution to the 2014 Flu Vaccine thread.:laugh:

 

Troublemaker! let me get my tinfoil hat on and I'll head over there!!

 

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh: Opening another bag of popcorn.

 

UPDATE- had a chance to get the Riv out and take a look at the brakes. Master was FUBAR. All the fluid leaked out the back and on the ground. And as I suspected, the original to the car- coded "RA". Not bad, an almost 46 year run! Naturally, the replacement turned into what I refer to as an "excrement show" as all the flare nuts were frozen to the lines. Had to replace a total of three steel lines and reuse the original special large flare nuts. Lines came out like factory. Bench bled the new master and bled the rest of the car out. Couldn't get a pedal. Bled it 4 or 5 separate times. Finally, after contemplating pouring gasoline on it and lighting it on fire, I got a pedal.....YAY! Called it quits for today. Sundays plan is to adjust up the rear brakes and repack the loose bearings. Still have about 10 other things on the punch list but that can wait till spring.

 

Just wanted to update the thread and saga of the Riv brakes...

So to get you up to speed, I had installed my "new" Chinesium master cylinder back in December and got a pedal. But it was low....really low. No brake light on though. I figured that the rear brakes were just way out of adjustment. No such luck (naturally) . Got frustrated, threw my hands up and just put the car back in the garage for the winter. So pissed I didn't even put the cover on it. Now its filthy to boot but I digress...

Fast forward to this weekend- took the car out and revisited this problem. Cant understand why the pedal is low. No air in the lines. Bled the crap out of it. Getting pressure of out all 4 wheels. Pedal isn't soft, just low. The only thing I replaced was the master, so logic would tell me that there is something different or wrong with the brand new master:af:. The only thing I can figure is that the receptacle in the back of the master might be deeper than the original requiring the pedal to be depressed further for the same braking action.

So I bit the bullet and dropped off my original master that's been on the car since new at Apple Hydraulics for re-sleeving and rebuilding. They said it will be ready on Friday, so I'll install it next weekend. I really have my fingers crossed. Wouldn't be the first time I chased my tail by a new part

 

Update- got the original master back and installed it. man, those guys doi some good work. Looks brandy new and has a nice brass sleeve installed Brake pedal is good to go! I compared the new Chinesium master vs the original. As I thought the 'dimple" in the back of new master was deeper than the original. So the pedal took more travel to engage the master. It also prevented me from getting full travel of the master. That's why I wasn't getting a lot of pressure.

Just putting on the bench bled master on the car, without even bleeding the wheels, I got a nice high pedal. Geez, I thought I was going insane! From now on, Im not dealing with new brake parts. Im going to send out everything to Apple.