Fall Jefferson Second run on sunday - Brake hose Failure

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RallyKeith
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Posts: 41
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:06 am
Current Racecar: Isn't every car a race car????

Fall Jefferson Second run on sunday - Brake hose Failure

Post by RallyKeith »

Below you will find a link to the only in car video I took the entire weekend, and as it turned out the "most exciting" of all my runs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7n2RIQaZpA

It was the second run of group 2 sunday morning. The brake pedal had felt a little soft and slow to respond on the first run but I attributed it to possible brake fluid overheating since the circuit events are much harder on the brakes than a hill. On this run the brakes seemed the same until coming down the hill into the last turn before the finish. Stepped on the brakes and after about a second of braking the pedal snapped to the floor. At that point I just held on and steered the car and best as possible. As you can see I only ended up dropping the right side tires off the course. After getting back into our pit area we found not one, but two of the braided stainless steel brake hoses had ruptured. Both were on the right side so each hose was on a different circuit of the master cylinder. The failure point was on the inside of the upper loop which sees all the flexing as the car goes over bumps. The lines were about 10 years old and since the car is mainly a rally car it does see a lots of motion in the hoses. Very lucky that it ended the way it did. It's a rally car so no damage to anything.

Thanks,
Keith
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