Steel Braided Brake Lines

[john at westcoastgarage.net]

Huw Powell wrote:

>
>> Never heard of the problem?  I've personally seen it twice, and 
>> there's a guy on the 20v list ( or maybe this one) who had it happen 
>> to him under heavy braking from speed on the race track.  Not 
>> pretty.  The ONLY failure mode for SS braided teflon brake hoses is 
>> sudden, total, and absolute loss of braking
>
>
>
> What about the dual braking circuits featured on pretty much every 
> modern car?  Losing a slave hose (or a metal line or a cylinder...) 
> only kills half the brakes - dangerous, sure, but not an absolute loss 
> of braking.
>
> Not that I would promote this, but I drove my Chevy truck home from 
> buying it with only one working brake (they were back roads and I went 
> slow, but I could still stop).
>
And I, many years ago (in what might  generously be called a fit of 
stupidity), drove a '67 XKE 150 miles without a master cylinder even 
fitted to the car (from Vasek Polak P/A near LAX to Santa Maria).  At 
least I had some remote clue that I had to be careful.  That doesn't 
generally apply to brake line failure.  John