Parking brake locked

DODDLY5687

MEMBER
1987 PONTIAC FIERO
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
149,899 MILES

I have an 87 fiero gt, and When I apply brake pressure, the pedal seems to go almost all the way to the floor before catching, and the braking is very delayed. If I apply firm pressure the tires squeal and I begin to fish tail almost. When I move the ebrake lever it seems to move up and down without any effort. I don't know too much about it but it seems to me the ebrake is locked. I don't need the ebrake, but ideally I would like to keep it functional. If not I don't mind completely removing it I just don't know how to do either of those option. Any help will be much appreciated

1 Reply

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

This does not sound like a parking brake issue. It sounds more like you have a master cylinder issue.

Basically, if you have a leak in the master then you are going to have a weak pedal and it will drop when you press it until it is able to supply enough force to stop the vehicle. This can also cause the vehicle to suddenly lock the tires up, so it matches pretty closely with what you are seeing.

Here is a guide that will help with this:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/brake-pedal-goes-to-the-floor

If it were me, I would suggest capping off all the ports of the master cylinder and then press the brake pedal and find out if you have a hard pedal.

If not, you need to replace the master. If you do have a hard pedal, then you have a leak somewhere else in the system.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-replace-a-brake-master-cylinder

I attached the process below from the manual that will help with this so let us know what you find. Thanks

Image (Click to make bigger)