So I pull onto an offramp the other day at 70 mph with my girlfriend and my dog in the truck, I go to hit the brakes and I got nothing. Pedal went right to the floor. I knew I must have blown a brakeline.

Fortunately the offramp also was an onramp, so i merged with traffic and pulled back onto the highway, got into the breakdown lane and used the parking brake and downshifting to come to a stop.

I discovered that the flexible hose on the driver front brake broke off where the rubber turns to metal near the caliper.

I had no tools or duct tape in the truck, and didn't want to pay for a tow. I got out my McGyver kit of pens, bulbs, springs, zip ties, and anything else that may be of use.

Turns out that the tip of a 10 cent Bic pen fits perfectly into the metal sleeve brake line within the flexible hose. I just broke off the metal pen tip, jammed it real good into the broken line, and zip tied the line to the A-arm.

I had brakefluid in the empty toolbox, so I refilled the fluid and got on my way with 3 of 4 brakes working, no leaks, and a strong pull to the right. Made it 40 miles with no problems.

Even though I've now replaced all of the old lines, I'm always going to keep at least one bic in the car. I suspect the plastic part is big enough to plug one of the metal lines. Just thought I'd share.

 

Wow, I'm surprised that stayed in!

 

Me too. I folded the line in two with another ziptie to try to cut the amount of pressure that got through to the Bic plug.

What surprised me is that the lines weren't dry-rotted, little to no rust, or any other visable wear. They looked in great shape. Complete and utter failure.

I replaced all of the brake pads, rotors, master cylinder, and booster about 3-4 months ago and inspected the lines then. They looked fine. I assume I must have weakened the lines internally when changing the rotors. I rested the calipers on a 5 gallon bucket while working on the hub, and there was slack in the line, so they weren't roughed up too bad.

Lesson learned: On a 17 yr old truck, spend the extra $36 on new brake hoses.

 

Ah, that explains it.

 

wow

I told my dad to get a McGyver kit for his truck and he laughed

 

Why didn't you have the other half of the brake system still working
With the split system?
Ray

 

Wow, thats impressive thinking of using the bic pen tip. Gee... I wonder if you emailed that story to BIC, maybe with a photo they would send you a free pen ..... (the sarcasm is flowing thick tonight!)

Makes me feel better about having replaced the entire brake system (minus the master cylinder/booster) when I bought my first gen.

Mike

 

You definitely should have had some decent braking ability without the front brakes, your rear brakes must need some serious servicing too.

 

makes sense to me, a busted line equals no pressure since the fluid will flow the path of least resistance. so the broken brake line lead to no pressure getting to the other three brakes. thats a pretty slick fix though!

 

I have had various situations which lost fluid from only one corner and the pedal will drop to the floor as if you had nothing at all; sometimes, after hooking a boot under the sunken pedal and lifting it back up, a second quick pump or two might yield a small amount of pressure.

 

Someone is watching out for you. That could have been catastrophic. I'm glad you are OK! You're braver than I am. I would not have driven on compromised brakes unless there was absolutely no other option.

 

Probably half of the big trucks I have to drive have "compromised" brakes, if any at all.

After the owners get done paying seperate cell-phone bills for all the kids and wife, keep them all in nice cars, open account at the gas station, and fancy restaurants every meal, there is little left to keep up the trucks that make the money that they do all this stuff with.

 

I've kept a little box (had fuses in it) in my toolbox full of BBs & 6mm AirSoft pellets for several years. Had a bud rip a brake line wheeling. He he put a BB (likely from a carb) out of his "McGyver box" in the tapered fitting where the it met the hardline and drove it home! I've not had the need to use them, but have handed out several on the trails over the years...