Whoops








Hydraulic brake pressure switch for the lights failed at a very bad time. I'm not gonna lie I might have tagged the barrier anyway, just not as hard. No injuries, no frame damage, and other than the root cause of the brakes just cosmetic.

I HIGHLY recommend that you do not use a hydraulic brake light switch.
Do it the right way and use a normally closed electric switch.

 

Ouch! Glad the frame is ok.

Fun fact: The Volkswagen that your engine came out of used a hydraulic brake light switch. Two of them, in fact- one on the front circuit and one on the rear. In addition to turning on the brake lights, they also acted as a warning system. If a state-mismatch was detected (pressure on one circuit but not the other) it lit up an idiot-light on the instrument cluster.

 

So, when you say 'failed' you obviously mean it popped and you lost brake pressure on one circuit?

 

That is a fun fact. Its still a bad freaking idea.

You sir, are correct; specifically the rear brakes.

 

Well, yeah. But on the plus side, you had a little tiny light on the dashboard that glowed dimly to let you know that the reason you were about to crash was because your brakes had just failed.

Gotta hand it to the Germans- they think of everything.

 

I like Pook's stuff but I have a street legal go kart I am planning on salvaging parts off of

Here is my current buggy



And I got a GSXR 1000 bike im scrapping for parts to make this

 

That is pure sex.

 

Details or at least a name of the car?

 

What is that?

 

Looks like an RCR Superlite Nemesis.

SuperLite Cars Made in the USA, Engineered to Win on the Street and Track by Race Car Replicas

Hayabusa engine, 1,098 lbs. $20k for the rolling chassis kit.

 

I gotta say, that's about as close as it gets to driving an indy car

 

I don't know. I think the V8 Atom is more like it. Except for the two seater part.

 

so you're brake lights activate when the pressure in the lines reaches a certain point? and that adapter-thingy broke and caused you to lose brakes?

 

Correct, rear brakes.

 

That is an interesting way to do things, but the blaring fact of that being one more possibe failure point (and a very dangerous one at that) makes me wonder why an engineer would choos to do this.

 

but a simple mechanical switch on the pedal itself is way too eay.

 

I have no clue. I'm thankful at least my car has two braking circuits; could you imagine what happens on a street car that only has one?

Its even more puzzling considering the state of the art of material science back then; a simple electrical switch, even with redundancy, is far more simple.

The only advantage I see is its an actual indication of line pressure and the fact that the car is slowing, rather than a pedal switch that is an indication of the intent to apply line pressure. IMHO its semantics, because a failure either way does not change the fact that you may not stop. a failure of either a pressure or electric switch will not change the fact that you may stop without indication.

 

?

I'm not aware of any street car which hasn't had dual-circuit brakes since at least the 1960s. The Beetle got them as part of the 1967 redesign. Most cars use only a single fluid reservoir, but the master cylinder itself is internally split into two isolated circuits, with each serving two wheels. Most commonly front-back, however I have seen some cars with diagonal splits.



A lot of things about the VW design are an interesting conundrum. Every one I have ever driven, for instance, had a pair of little levers positioned right by the e-brake handle whose sole function seemed to be to let just enough carbon monoxide into the cabin to make you stop caring about the fact that you are freezing cold and your front windshield is completely fogged up.

 

While I realize this is true, I had a slave cylinder fail on me in my first rabbit.....ALL the brakes stopped working and I had to get a handful of ebrake. In our 240sx lemons car... if a bleeder is open on the rear corner you can put the brakes on the floor and still turn all the wheels by hand...just sayin'

 

I solved this problem by not having a windshield. Or brake lights.