[DeTomaso] NO REAR BRAKES MANGUSTA / Dick Ruzzin

[zumzum at cox.net]

Hello Dick, what others are saying about the master bore issue should be true in your case as long as you had a prior tight pedal. You may have damaged the piston seal or if the secondary ( rear brakes ) piston is a floater dependent on fluid pressure, then it got stuck in the corroded bore and is not retracting so as to suck in fluid. Pull apart the master and inspect or block off the front pipes with a plug or pinchers and see if the higher pressure can free up the master piston. Also you can back pressure the rear lines at the bleeders with high psi shop air to unstick the piston then use a large cfm a/c vacuum pump to move fluid and air out through the lines. In the recent past I did this to  bleed my difficult Espada dual servo system with great  results. The noise you heard most likely was the piston hitting the bore bottom. By the way I am still going forth with the center tunnel structure upgrade on my Mangusta. We are in the finite element design stage now, last week I bought and put to use electronic weight scales and found corner weights with center of gravity and side to side weight balance with and without my butt in the car. This mod will help handling and braking forces. Good luck, Jeff Cobb  #1196.