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The treadle-vac in my 400 failed last year coming home from Summit Racing. It was a rather strange failure. My right rear tire blew the tube (wire wheels usually have tubes) because of the heat generated by the brake shoes being constantly in contact with the drum. The drum was so hot we had to be careful not to touch it. I am lucky it did not catch fire. The heat had destroyed the return spring for the primary shoe allowing it to rub against the drum and causing the secondary shoe to ride on the drum also. The lining was destroyed. As a result I had to get flat-bedded home, a little over 70 miles. At the time I did not blame the Bendix master, but instead thought it might be the brake hose to the rear brakes. I had previously installed Venezuelan hoses purchased on ebay. I installed new American-made hoses and also all new wheel cylinders. I replaced any brake lining that looked suspect.
I finally bled the brakes myself the other day and drove the car about five miles to the car wash and home. By the time I reached home the brakes were locking up again. I jacked up the front end and could not rotate either front wheel. I cracked open the right front bleeder and got a small amount of fluid out. I could now rotate either wheel. Last night I removed the Treadle-vac and am going to ship it to Ross Miller for rebuild.
Now before the white knights ride up and proclaim the BTV the worst thing since they no longer required virgins to wear a chastity belt - take it somewhere else. I've been running that BTV since 1992 and have many thousands of miles on my 400 (speedometer has rolled over and now read 5,000 plus miles) so I think it has proved to be a more than adequate unit.
You are of course entitled to your opinion - just DON'T clutter up my post with it!.
I will let Ross determine the problem and resolution.
Stay tuned.

What?!? Just a straight discussion of what the mechanical failure was and a resolution?

Randy, you're taking all the fun out of this forum! :o)

Interesting. I am kind of curious why you only had problems with the one wheel when the first failure occurred. Any theories?

I just make sure that my cable hand brake is up to snuff,,,,Pt

Thank-You Randy. I ran into Ross and a few others last week at our local show and I was ask why I have not been updating lately. I said I thought this forum was for us to share and help each other out and that I have had my fill of the Trolls milling around constantly telling you how dumb you are or your not doing it "their" way. Not that I don't like different perspectives but the same agenda's crammed down your throat gets old. Glad to see I'm not the only one who has felt that.

Anyway, FYI in case you didn't know, Randy is out of the shop until June 1st. I have a few items to send him as well. Yes, let him determine the issue and lets learn from the facts.

Directly under the brake line fitting on the mc is a residual presure valve. That has probably gone bad and caused excessive residual pressure at thee wheel cylinders.

That problem has existed for many miles due to the fact that the linings were woren so bad. That one incident did not suddenly wear the linings in just a few miles. Nearly impossible. So the problem has existed for many miles.

And besides, if u don't want any ones opinion then why did u post your personal probemfor the entire world to see.

Could have been the residual ck valve or poss the pedal not returning all the way up to full release position to rock the compensator valve off its seat to open the valve to the reservoir. this would not cause drag when cold and first driven but when all is heating up from a long drive with engine temp rising the expansion of the fluid now trapped in the pressure side of the hyd sys with no way to escape will surely cause the brakes to drag, heat up , and worsen the issue. You said the issue was worse in 1 rear but you has both fr dragging too. I assume the problem would first show up on thee wheel with the closest adj of the shoes. You did not say if ALL the wheels had drag when inspecting. I would have put all 4 wheels up, checked for drag on all 4 when hot and if they all released when you cracked 1 fr bleeder then you would have had your definite answer.

After reading this thread, and this one,packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... 317&topic_id=16081&#forumpost161317

They got me to thinking, for all you techie people, there should be an ap for this! Ross has a logbook, I have a spiral notepad in the glovebox of each car. But nowadays EVERYTHING has an AP.

Time for a PACKARD service ap. send you reminders to do the service, keeps up with the last thing you did or replaced.

😀😃😄😊☺️