Memories of Old Blue: Brake Check

Old Blue. An uncreative yet totally deserving nickname of my first ride. A 1975 Ford F-100 with a bullet proof 300 cube straight six. While the drivetrain may have been bullet proof, the brakes, had seen better days.

I always heard stories of peoples brakes going out and I often wondered what they did when such a horrific event happened. What would I do? I used to think it would be wise to throw the vehicle into park. Upon gaining greater mechanical knowledge I learned two things about this philosophy. 1) Most vehicles today have a nifty feature that prohibit this to prevent complete idiots from blowing apart their transmission. 2) I did not want to test whether or not my vehicle had this feature in fear of becoming one of those idiots and blowing apart my transmission. Another logical way to deal with such even would be to throw the emergency brake. That is why it exists right?

So of course the next part of the story has to be when my brakes failed. I was sitting in traffic in my high school parking lot when my brake pedal completely hit the floor and my truck started surging forward. My truck, mind you, idled like it had a high performance camshaft in it. If you cannot imagine the sound think of a dragster at the starting line sounding like it is either about to die or blast off. The funny thing about my truck was that it did not have any such camshaft installed. It simply was run down and idled rough. This makes it even more entertaining when you have no brakes as the rough idle will pull the vehicle forward at a comical intermittent pace at idle.

As I sat in the traffic jam with my truck rocking back and forth I began pumping my brakes feverishly to stop the big truck. I then stretched my foot out to hit the E-Brake when I remembered the flaw with my second plan shall my brakes ever fail. The emergency brake in my truck had not worked since the day I bought it. I then resorted to getting out of the lot by switching my truck between neutral and drive all while pumping up my brakes to save any pressure I might have left.

Two miles later I somehow made it home without plowing into anyone or running the 3 stop signs between school and the house. A replaced master cylinder later and I was stopping like a champ. I was truly blessed that day for losing them when I did. Had I been doing 35 mph on a busy road I would have been in serious trouble.