“BRAKE SYSTEM PROBLEM”

The driver complains that the brake pedal is hard and the car doesn’t stop, or the pedal goes to the floor are common among sprint cars. During the 2002 season, we fought brake problems similar to the above and had nearly given up. We continued to look at the obvious:

v Checked and replaced the 2-lb residual valve.

v Checked the entire system for leaks, cracked fittings, and stuck calipers.

v Bled and replaced the entire fluid system. Using only high-temp racing brake fluid.

v Replaced all brake pads

v Checked rotors for run-out

v Replaced master-cylinder

v We even replaced the entire brake system (rotors, re-flared lines, fittings, and calipers) However, we did not replace the fitting in the master cylinder as it had just been changed.

v Checked pressure at each of the calipers

After bleeding the brakes, the pedal in the shop was great, could hardly push it to the floor.

Yet we still were unable to correct the problem until an inspection of the master cylinder fittings revealed are problem.

Nearly everyone sprint car team believes that using that little extra muscle to tighten a fitting will prevent leaks. Well, that little extra tug may prevent the leak but it will also cause fittings to crack, flared lines to split, or mushroom the flares of fittings. The pictures below identify where we were able to locate our brake problem.

	Actual hole size	Mushroomed hole size