Damn car is trying to kill me.

LaserSVT

LaserSVT

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:mad:


I knew it was going to happen too. I let it slip out that I was happy with the car last night while standing next to it. As soon as I said it I knew something was going to happen. Can never let that car hear that I am happy cause every time it will do something to change that. :lol:

Driving to work this morning I was at a stop sign and wanted to punch it for the first time on dry pavement with the new tires. Car launched and make a small pop noise from the engine that I ignored. So I get up to speed and have a big smile cause the car launched perfect. I get to 80 and have to brake hard for a 90* left hander that I can do 45 max on. I hit the brakes and the pedal is like a rock, don't move at all. :eek: I stand on it and it barley scrubs off any speed. In one second I had it down shifted into 2nd and reached down to grab the e-brake release and then modulated the e-brake till I hit 60. It wasn't enough. I knew the tail would just swing out if the nose bit and with the new braces up front my nose really grabs hard now. So I turned in very deep into the corner and blipped to WOT for a split second as the ass was swinging out and then held it at 2/3 throttle trying to keep the tires spinning and then did some opposite lock. I drifted this 2 ton beast through a tight 90* turn! :eek: That is only the second time in my life that I purposely drifted a car and the second time that it has scared the living crap out of me followed by pure excitement after exiting the turn. :lol:

Fuggin car. :mad:

So I slowed down to 35 using 2nd gear and then used the e-brake to stop. I pop the hood and right at the booster the 90* vac line elbow broke clean in half. I guess with it being old and brittle and 25* outside that the engine easily broke it when it rotated at WOT off the line. So I limped the car back home and took apart the line to make a temporary permanent fix. :p I couldn't get the nipple out of the harder plastic line and was sure I would brake it if I kept at it. So I took it off the car and found my phantom vac leak. At the plenum the rubber hose was worn through to cause a sporadic vac leak which is what I believe has caused my lean condition error I sometimes get. So I fixed that and then used CA glue to glue the 90* back together. Since I had to go to work and needed to leave soon I also wrapped it in JB weld after the glue set. Its ugly but it works in a pinch.
Nice thing is the car stops better then ever! I could NEVER get the brakes to lock on dry pavement. The pedal always felt fine until you got past the half way point and then was spongy and hard at the same time. Now the pedal feels great, still a little spongy but the car stops way way better, I can lock them up now! :wrench

So I guess thats a good thing. Scared the crap out of me but allowed me to correct two annoying problems. All this time I thought the car just had super inefficient brakes, turns out they are just slightly inefficient. :lol:


So I am anal and I think this will bug me too much. Should I just leave the JB welded part in there or does it look lousy enough to warrant locating the hard plastic tube and correct 90* fittings?
Yes its dirty, its the body shop dust under the hood and I haven't had time to re clean the engine yet. :(
downsize-6.gif
 
sounds like you are trying to kill the car and you lol. Id fix the line with a new part but I am anal about that stuff.
 
You can replace that valve from the help section from the auto parts store.
It firmed up my brakes and it's only $3-4 bucks.
 
What valve? The 90* elbow broke.

Max said they now call for 12.5mm vac line for that section. So I guess I will just buy two 90*'s and a length of appropriate size vac line.


EDIT: Are you referring to that white thing that the hose hooks to for the booster? Didnt know that was a valve, guess I could swap it at the same time.
 
Even with no vacuum assist you should be able to stop the car... shouldnt have been that scary, you just have to literally STAND on the brake pedal.
 
DieselDan said:
Even with no vacuum assist you should be able to stop the car... shouldnt have been that scary, you just have to literally STAND on the brake pedal.
Click to expand...

I tell ya, I am 320 lbs and can leg press 750 lbs. I pushed that pedal down as hard as I could and it barley did anything. If I had to do a normal slow down and used all my strength I could have done it but I needed to scrub off half my speed in a very short distance and I just couldnt do it. I drove the car 6 miles back home when I figured out I need to go slow and can push hard enough to do a semi normal stop.

I have a suspicion that my brake fluid is too old and has some water in it too. Next week I am going to have the brake system completly flushed. The fluid does not have that nice clean honey color to it any more. Its more to the brown side and not very clear.
I should go get one of them test kits.
 
Yes it's white on your car, most of them are black and it pulls out from the grommet.

Some people on here thought they had major brake vaccum problems and that
valve took care of it.

Since you are replacing the elbow, it's a easy replacement.
Forgot the actual name of it, I just brought in with me.
 
jamie97lsc said:
i have that entire line with the elbow if you want give me 10 bucks and i'll send it.
Click to expand...

Sounds good to me. Then all I have to get are the little rubber lines that connect to the plenum and the booster valve. :)
I will PP you on Tuesday if thats cool. Just PM me your PP address. Thanks mang.
 
davidm said:
Yes it's white on your car, most of them are black and it pulls out from the grommet.

Some people on here thought they had major brake vaccum problems and that
valve took care of it.

Since you are replacing the elbow, it's a easy replacement.
Forgot the actual name of it, I just brought in with me.
Click to expand...

Unfortunatly I forgot to check my service manual before I left for work so that I could see what that part is called. I have been searching the parts stores and cant seem to locate what it is. :(
Oil well.
 
davidm said:
You can replace that valve from the help section from the auto parts store.
It firmed up my brakes and it's only $3-4 bucks.
Click to expand...

It was $6 and worth every cent! Thanks mang! Bought one today and slapped it on before I drove home. First stop made my pizza slide off the seat (on a towel) to the floor because the pedal was much softer and the brakes grabbed harded. I no longer have the semi spongy feeling after half pedal and the brakes are easier to modulate. Big plus is the car is now using the rest of its available force and is stopping much shorter and easier to cause lock up.

Guess I was losing vac after some brake pedal travel and with no boost left I was never able to fully engauge the brakes. What a simple and cheap fix. :)
 
Glad it helped your braking, maybe it will help others on the board also.
Hope it did not disturb the Peperoni.

Hope you buy and install the other SCP lower braces, the welded version, changes the whole platform.
 
Yup, I will be ordering them after the front suspension rebuild, exhaust install and gear install. So I am thinking late Feb or early march before I can order them as I have too much on my plate to do to the car now. I am going to do them in conjunction with the rear IRS brace........ crap! That just got me thinking since I will be replacing the rack and all the controll arms next month that it would be the best time to install the new front sway bar..... great, more money to spend. :lol:
 
I have the Rear Tortsional Brace and Differentail bushings from SCP.
They are not installed, but will do them at the same time.
Think I am done with SCP for a while, the braces are worth the money, but time to move on to other areas of the Mark.
 
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