Re: Brakes

Posted by PackardV8 On 2007/11/14 21:27:22

At the BACK WALL of the RESERVOIR there is approx a 1/16 inch dia. VERTICLE passage that opens from the reservoir and into the rear seal area of the master cylinder OUTSIDE of the the pressure chamber. Brake fluid can travel down thru the hole and then be sucked into the vacuum can.

I too have found brake fluid in the vacuum can of 2 different tradle-vac power units.

Randy: your explanation of the glass with the straw is correct. BUT does NOT model the issues with the treadle vac. If u CAPPED the top of the glass and perhaps allowed only a SMALL vent hole then YES ABSOLUTLEY the vacuum in the straw would remove the water from the glass even tho the straw never touched the water. It is called EVAPORATION! A strong vacuum pump and certainly the vacuum of a gasoline engine would empty a beer glass half full of water in about 30 minutes. The top of the glass would need to be significantly (tho not necessarily completely) sealed from the atmospher to do it.

I never had any treadle vac failures with my 56 Exec. However, it did suck brake fluid that was found in the power can. That is why i did the conversion to a modern unit.

During my Treadle-Vac driving there were probably at least 3 occasions where i had to make hard emergency stops and one pedal slammer at about 60 MPH down to nearly stop. NO failure. GOOD BRAKES!! HOWEVER, i can not afford to chance the possibility of no recourse for recovery if the compensator valve does fail. It's the compensator valve that is a very bad design and allows for no recovery whatsoever under failure.