What would you do: Brake failure.. Downshift or Reverse?

[TURBOELKY]

if your going that fast, and down shift, its just going to lock the tires up. I use to do this all the time with my 350/350 in the elky, just for the hell of it but not going that fast. i'd down shift, hit the e grake, and do some spins with my radio all the way up, make a quick call on my cell phone and turn on the a/c

 

[turbofish38]

First off I dont understand why you couldn't stop a car with a dead PM. Yeah the pedal is hard but you still have fluid being applied. I've had many a failure with the PM and I've always been able to stop the car. Heck one time it was at the track. But in all fairness to the engineers at Delco I had fair warning that something was going down. I had an intermediate warning light indicating the accumulator was failing or the pump couldn't pump the required pressure. I was able to stage and when I went through the traps I had a hard pedal. Stupid me. I always used to wait until the last second to slow down. I always took the return road at mach one. The chick at the time slip shack just loved that. Well by the time I hit no mans land in the shut off I had all four wheels locked up and spun 2 360 degree turns in the loose gravel. And I stopped without hitting anything. It would have been great if the concrete was clean. I could have done without all of the dramatics anyway.

First of all you wont F-up they tranny shoving it in park. The lock pawl is spring loaded and will just make a loud ratchet noise. It aint going to lock anything up. Poping it in reverse will stall the engine. Thats bad too. You need the full abilty of your cars power. Hey there is still a belt driven power steering pump on your car. If you cant push down on a dead brake pedal than you aint got the guns to turn the steering wheel either. Weenie! One less problem to worry about.What ever you do dont slam on the parking brake pedal. If you lock up the rear wheels than you loose even more control over your car. Pull up on the release handle and hold it before you mash down on it. At least you can modulate it.

Okay I've seen lots of video of people hitting the wall. Here's the number one tip that everyone of them forgot to do. Pop the damn car in neutral before you do anything else.That should be you first instinct. It will take the load off the drive wheels. It's like driving in the snow. You're sliding down a hill and you have the brakes locked up. You're out of control. Pop it in neutral and the rear wheels suddenly aren't locked up and the tires are now rotating which means now you have some grip on the pavement and you can stop safely. The same applies whether you have a brake failure or pop an oil or coolant line and the rear wheels get covered. You have got to have grip for anything to happen. Lock up a wheel and you loose the grip.

Even though a lot of you guys dont give a chit about going around corners fast you might look into a race driving school like Bonderaunt. You will learn a lot about car control and just about all of it carries over to straight line racing.

 

[A2000RICH]

i would throw it into park or tbrake....better to lose the trans then the car. good thing my cars down.

the parking pawl is spring loaded with a rather light spring-----if you count on the parking pawl to to stop anything you are going to be sorely dissapointed at a time when you can't afford to waste time------when the RPM of the parking gear is high the pawl just floats across the teeth and and doesn't have time to drop into a slot to engage------- thats what creates the grinding sound that surprisingly doesnt' really hurt anything but sounds horrible--------it will not engage till the gear slows enough for the light spring to drop it into contact-------thats usually about 10 mph-------like i said i have practiced this drill numerous times and its not really a bad idea to go through a dry run and get it down so when the time comes you can make the best ot it.................RC

 

[tom j]

Parachute!

 

[Slow91z]

My PM hasn't worked in 2 years...I still drive and race it all the time...Just gotta man up and use some muscle...With S-10 wheel cylinders I can still lock em up.

 

[SloGN]

what i do when i'm racing at the track or on the street. as soon as i let off the throttle i knock the trans up into neutral. My reasoning for this is if the throttle sticks i will be able to get it out of a pull and start slowing down. if the power master was to fail in a moment like this i would down shift in the next lower gear and keep the converter locked up and apply the ebrake slowly not to lockup the rear wheels. I have had a power master fail on the interstate and you can stop a gn just fine at speeds around 55 and less after than it just takes some leg power kinda like the older muscle cars had to have!

 

[bison]

what i do when i'm racing at the track or on the street. as soon as i let off the throttle i knock the trans up into neutral. My reasoning for this is if the throttle sticks i will be able to get it out of a pull and start slowing down. if the power master was to fail in a moment like this i would down shift in the next lower gear and keep the converter locked up and apply the ebrake slowly not to lockup the rear wheels. I have had a power master fail on the interstate and you can stop a gn just fine at speeds around 55 and less after than it just takes some leg power kinda like the older muscle cars had to have!

This is not a great idea with a lot of transmissions because the output shaft becomes the input shaft and cause the internals to overspeed and burst . You could get away with it on the 200 though.

 

[turbocam]

i would drop so many nuggets in my boxershorts , the weight alone would slow the car down:biggrin: im sure i would try to put the brake pedal through the firewall first

 

[bison]

i would drop so many nuggets in my boxershorts , the weight alone would slow the car down:biggrin: im sure i would try to put the brake pedal through the firewall first

Maybe you should wear Depends when you race your TR then:biggrin: .

 

[RGS87GN]

i dont know how ure supposed to do any of that stuff wthout spilling ure beer, u guys all have 3 hands or somethng?

 

[Junior Samples]

Now thats funny 3 hands and a peg leg...good thing i got the steelers dual feed beer hardhat

 

[RGS87GN]

Now thats funny 3 hands and a peg leg...good thing i got the steelers dual feed beer hardhat

i hope t holds 2 kegs, id need way more beer if i had to route for a team that crappy...........come to think of it b.c is gonna cost my liver a thorough beating. damn it

 

[Junior Samples]

lol i dont watch football but i do have one of them steelers hard hats, im a hockey guy and now my powermaster is acting up errrrrrrr

 

[Clark6]

i would drop so many nuggets in my boxershorts , the weight alone would slow the car down:biggrin: im sure i would try to put the brake pedal through the firewall first

I told my wife you said this and she's still laughing about it , careful on that ebrake though remember no slamming but more like a gradual firm pressure applied so it will be like an anti-lock system.

I was in the 1/8 once, did a burn out, held the foot brake HARD to build & hold boost at the line, the rear driver drum brake line bursted leaking fluid out the back (old rusty looking brake lines) brake light came & stayed on.... As i got ready to stop i was at 85mph i think, the pedal just went softly to the floor & had to put extra effort to squeeze it through the firewall as i was squeezing, i had fluid going out the back every where, so my fluid was gone but i still managed to drive the car home about 16 miles through town with no fluid at 50mph. I didnt fix it till the next day & was when i diagnosed the problems. I put all new brake lines in from the line lock all the way to the back.
I didnt think about the e brake or down shifting which is what i will try if it ever happens again but I or no one else HOPES NOT.

 

[mark_123456]

I lost my vacuum brakes at the 1/8 mile once! The vaccum hose was cut too short and was pulled off when the motor torqued over.

When I hit the brakes...nothing! I was going 94 MPH and the end of the 1/8 mile. I just stood on the pedal and downshifted the trans. I still had the make the turn-off on the return road at over 30. I added at little parking brake at the end to slide around the corner!

I was scared, but didn't panic and made it through OK. Don't cut the brake booster vacuum line too short!

 

[scottyb]

First off I dont understand why you couldn't stop a car with a dead PM. Yeah the pedal is hard but you still have fluid being applied.

I've had 2 fail, luckily not at high speed. The pressure it takes just from a moderate speed made me think I would break the seat and bend the steering wheel. I was STANDING on it. I can only imagine the fear if it fails at high speed.

I'm still pissed at myself I wasn't smart enough to go vacuum after the first failure.

To answer the OP, I would probably yank the shifter to low, feather the e-brake, and scream like a little girl.

 

[turbodave231]

Pull the Chute!!!!!:biggrin: :biggrin: