Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by 97CargoCrawler »

Looks upside down to me.

Also, if your master cylinder has a blown seal, there is definitely no ghetto repair. If you remove the master cylinder you will have more air in your system than you could possibly bleed by yourself, so be very careful.

Still stuck on top of the hill? Got any pix of the road you need to descend?
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Wiley »

I assume I will be stuck on this hill for a few weeks to be honest. I have contemplated going for it, but there is no way, I already had to face a few smaller butt puckering hills with 1st gear, and keep in mind this is not an empty van. I have also contemplated driving to the edge in reverse, and throwing into drive to see if gravity can get me down, probably at the cost of the tranny. I believe I read a year or so ago that I need to pull the AWD fuse if I can find a way to get towed down correct?

The church below is where it finally levels off. The second pic is from the 1st turn you see in the 1st, and its too hot to keep walking down to show the rest, but its all like the second pic.
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by MountainManJoe »

Is there no towing service around there? If there is, you have to get all four wheels off the ground (flat deck truck or one with a dolly). The ATC fuse won't help you there.

The pics don't appear that steep. I would go for it in 1st with horn blaring all the way. :muhaha:
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Wiley »

Im not at the towing stage yet, but youve obviously never been in a small pueblo. I am sure they could figure it out, but it will somehow involve motorcycles, and maybe a cow or burro. I estimate a quarter mile or so of downhill twisties, thats a lot of inertia, and puckering!

Also updated the caliper pic. Pretty sure I have two lefts, probably not a deal breaker but if they made that mistake I am afraid of what else they did.
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by 97CargoCrawler »

Dude, that's a beautiful spot to get stuck. I think I'd slap some adobe on the sides of the van and live there a while. :rock:

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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by LiftedAWDAstro »

The side that is upside down and hasn't leaked DON'T touch! Same with the fronts...for now. Your leak was the left rear, correct? What you can do for now is fill the reservoir and slightly open the bleeder or the banjo bolt of the left rear destroyed caliper. What this will do is let gravity slowly fill the line with fluid possibly enough to get some pedal back. I know 97CC said to not bleed from the banjo and while this is true, sometimes (in a case like this) you don't have a choice. You can do this over the course of a few or several hours and sometimes it helps. You may need to do this to the fronts as well and you can access the banjos by turning the wheels either way. May not be easy but should work. If you find a passing helper ask them to pump the brakes for you.
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by 97CargoCrawler »

Where's the other guy go? I thought it was two dudes in a van.... sorry if I missed that part.
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Wiley »

Yes it is beautiful here though the heat is killing me and normally its cloud free, so hotter. Its famous for no clouds or light pollution which results in amazing star gazing as being this close to the ecuador you can see the constellations from both hemis. Only me now, we originally planned about 8 months for the whole trip but that was too fast for me so he backpacked to argentina as he had a plane to italy to catch. Im about 14 months in and nowhere near the end, thinking about a break soon, esp now.

Anyway thanks ill try that tomorrow afternoon or sunday, ill try anything including the burro at this point want to talk to the chevy guys just to see my options as well as step away for bit.
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Snowgeek »

Ok so a few thoughts. First off I think most all the real info has been said already...so I don't know if this will help....
But here it goes.
- did the resivior go empty when this happened?
- if it did you have a lot of air in there.

If you have only added fluid and haven't really bled the system then your pedal is going to be soft or hit the floor.

With that said I don't think I would jump to the master cylinder problem yet... Not till the bleed is done and done right..... Adding fluid and pumping isn't going to be enough.

As it has been said if you could get some one up there to pump the breaks that would help a ton.

So a question for others out there... Does a gravity bleed work in the car world. In bike world we can fill the reservoir - open a line letting it drip or flow - and keep the reservoir topped of until it is bleed - then close the line.

Sorry typing this on an iPhone with limited time.... Keep strong you will get down! And keep rolling!!! Keep hitting us with questions as you have them.

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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Wiley »

Hold up i have a question for you. Do you have a build thread or pics anywhere lol i had thought about doing a popup top and cant get enough looking at others.

Edit: see what a dumbass i am, asking for a build thread when your sigs staring me in the face

You can see im takinga mental break today though i did find the mechanic who wants to stop by my van when i getback. I told him monday but hes insistent lol, wants the money i dont have. Im gonna try and bleed tonight and tomorrow cant do anything in the afternoons in this heat.
Last edited by Wiley on Sat May 04, 2013 7:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Stroverlander »

If you're able to source replacement parts, try to get your hands on a Mityvac type vacuum bleeder, even a small one. This will allow you a better shot at bleeding air out of the system by yourself by applying vacuum to help suck air out and move fluid through system.

The rear calipers on these are basically symmetrical (they will mount to either side) except for where the bleeder screw is drilled/located to determine position. Yes, having the bleeder on top is how it should be in order to ease bleeding but it should be usable if not damaged in another way. Also, it's hard to tell in the photo of rear caliper but looks like the caliper piston is extended out quite far from the caliper and may be part of the pedal travel problem. If it is extended that far, that's where some of your fluid has gone. You can try pressing piston back into caliper with a c-clamp or other means to hold it in place. Remove brake reservoir cover first to allow fluid to more easily push back into system too. With that done, check your fluid level and see what the pedal feels like. Also, you can lubricate the piston with a bit of brake fluid to help slide if it's stubborn.

As for parts, as I mentioned on other forum the brake master cylinder is model specific to '03-'05 Astro/Safari and those parts look like the correct ones for your van. If you want part numbers for aftermarket parts like A1 Cardone, AC Delco, Raybestos, etc let me know and I can help provide them for you.
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Wiley »

Stroverlander wrote: Also, it's hard to tell in the photo of rear caliper but looks like the caliper piston is extended out quite far from the caliper and may be part of the pedal travel problem.
Yup thanks for that, i was gonna look more into it after my break but that was what got me looking more closely at the caliper when i noticed the upside down bleeder.



Im sitting outside watching some amazing chain lightning light up the sky, its not all terrible.
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Stroverlander »

That's good to hear anyway.
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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Snowgeek »

Here is my build thread:
astrosafarivans.org/bb2/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=8832/

It is not complete.... It's been a really long year and i haven't been able to keep up.

How's it going down there.

Ryan
2004 Astro (was AWD now 4X4) 125,000 miles: purchased April 2012
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4" Overland lift, Rancho 5000 Cooper AT3 245/75/16 C,
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Propex HS2211 propane heater
I am copying a few of you hope you don't mind!

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Re: Need urgent help no brakes stuck on top of giant hill

Post by Wiley »

Thinking about it more im sure air got into the entire system. With th m.c. As low as it was when parked level, and all the up and down i did on hills to get here im betting it did in fact allow air in. Id like to bleed all 4 lines and thanks to the pb blasting i can get the 3 bleeders open. What im confused on is how i would get air out of that line where the caliper was rEmoved and then hose clamped.
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