Seems like as of lately I'm having "wonderful" luck with brakes, this time the Mustang is the next contestant. When I went to go check out a problem on a friends car I had checked out the exhaust pipe on the Mustang as I had heard some clunking while driving which sounded like the exhaust pipe was bouncing around. When I moved the pipe my suspicions were correct when the pipe moved excessively, indicating that a hanger came loose. After looking underneath, I did see a hanger that was right behind the muffler had slipped free from its U-bolt, plus the nuts on the exhaust manifold flange had also loosened up enough to have the pipe wobbling at that point as well.
Well after checking out the friend's car I decided I better address this exhaust shit since I can't have the damned pipe come loose while driving as that would be a complete disaster. I was able to loosen up the U-bolt and slide it into a better position where I can re-hook the hanger and secure the U-bolt so the hanger can do its job of supporting the rear half of the exhaust system. While under there though I did notice something, the brake line going from the junction block to the rear wheel was damaged. Apparently the exhaust pipe where it bends up and over the rear axle assembly was able to move close enough to smash against the brake line, crushing it to the point of making it leak over time with every brake pump. Since the front brakes were still good I was able to drive where I needed to go and still make it back home with no real issues. I did tighten up the two nuts on the exhaust flange afterward by the way. Once home I dragged out my bag of metal tubing, fittings and tools so I can make a new line to replace this bad brake line. This wasn't too hard as I had the cutter and flaring tools in the bag along with a bulk roll of tubing and I recycled the fittings from the old brake line. I made the length of brake line complete with the flares and fittings in place. I had to do some grinding to even out the flare as it wasn't perfectly even since the flare tool rarely allows for even pressure to open the tip of the tubing up. Once that was done I put the brake line in place and secured everything. I even used a couple of zip ties to double secure the line so it wouldn't shift around where it may get hit by the exhaust pipe again. The next thing was bleeding the brakes. This time I tried to use the vacuum pump again since the bleeder valves on the wheel cylinders stuck out plenty far enough to put the hose onto them from the vac pump. I went ahead and topped off the master cylinder and went ahead to pull vacuum and draw the air from the lines. I did pull fluid and air through the pump but for some reason it just seemed like I kept getting air. I tried both sides and really it was the same thing. I had to top off the master cylinder a couple more times before I went back to the old fashioned way with the ole lady in the car pumping the brake pedal while I opened the bleeder on each wheel. It was then that I saw why I couldn't stop getting air from the wheel cylinders. Every time the brake pedal was pumped a little air and brake fluid squirted from around the fitting holding the brake line into the wheel cylinder. The brake line that I put on wasn't seated perfectly on the cone inside the port where the flared end of the tube rests against it. Because of the slightly "off" flaring made by the rather crude flare tool set, I couldn't get the flare to sit right unless I moved the tube a little bit off to allow the flare to rest snugly against the cone inside the wheel cylinder port. After re-seating the flared end of the brake line and tightening the fitting up I was finally able to get fluid coming out when I went to bleed the system. After topping off the master cylinder I was finally able to get the rear brakes bled and working seemingly fine, all things considered. Even though this is a manual brake setup, it did seem like the pedal was firm enough for things to work properly. Every time I pumped the pedal I did hear the rear brakes moving so that's definitely a good sign. I should be alright now on the Mustang and its brakes.
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May 2023
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