So I'm new here, and just picked up an 86 pickup. It's going to be a learning experience for me, and I'm looking forward to it.

I'm sure some are more knowledgable than I am, so hopefully you can help me out.

Just drove the truck, and had the front brakes dragging after stopping at a light. Got them to stop, and thought everything was peachy. Then 10 secs later, no brakes at all. Pedal goes to the floor with absolutely no resistance.

So is it a bad master cylinder, or what else should I check.

Appreciate the help!

 

ok, check the obvious first. Is there fluid? Is there fluid on the ground? Could be a bad brake line or brake cylinder. After making sure you have fluid then follow the lines to be sure it's not leaking somewhere.

 

Roger, checked all the obvious. Should have stated that. Fluid level is good, and none under the truck either. These were the first things I checked.

Heading back to it now to make sure everything under the dash is connected.

 

If there are no puddles and the cylinders/calipers are not leaking. I'd go with a rebuild kit for the master cylinder. They are not all the much and seem to work out alright.

 

hey there , im pretty good at brakes .. ok do this on level dry ground truck stopped , hand brake on do this PUMP the pedal and try to get pressure going this may take a min or two if you do them really step on that pedal and see if you have a leak or have some one under neath looking for leaks about the hoses and calipers you have a bad break somethere , id replace all the soft parts first as in all 4 brake hoses , but why not just put a new m cyl in there along with pads and rotors all at the same time , its not that hard i will take you about 3-4 hours if you have all your parts and
get a brake bleeder if you can i have a vacula and it make bleeding a 1 man 15 min job ...

 

It was a bad master cylinder. New one was 32 bucks, but I had 20 bucks worth of credit from AutoZone so it was dirt cheap. The master cylinder was stuck in about 3/4", but now it's working great again.

Still need to go through the brakes yet, but they are working pretty well for the time being.

Thanks for the help and the quick responses!

Cheers!

 

a good way to check the master cylinder is to pump the brakes with the truck off, if the pedal doesn't get real stiff, the master is on its way out.