all of a sudden i went to stop and the brakes went mushy and the e-brake light came on. the e-brake doesnt work anymore and the brake pedal goes halfway to the floor before the car starts to stop. it kinda feels like i lost my rear brakes....

1989 camaro rs t-top
2.8l v6

 

sounds like you blew your rear brake line. check your master cylinder and see if its low on fluid, or check for a big puddle under your car...

 

yup, pretty much right on both. theres no fluid in the reservoir and when i filled it and pumped the brakes, fluid spilled out from the drivers side. theres a small hole on the brake line...

 

That is not an e-brake light. It is a brake warning light. It not only warns you that the e-brake is on it will also warn yopu that the fluid pressure is uneven for some reason. There is a swicth on the proportioning valve that has one wire. That wire hooks to the light also.

 

well, since this is my only vehicle at the moment, i bought some of that "quicksteel epoxy" to plug/cover the hole. dont have time to buy and install a new line. Why cant brake lines be rubber?!!?!?

 

NO...NO...NO...Do Not Drive The Car Like That!!! For starters the epoxy isn't going to hold because you're putting it on an oil soaked, rust-encrusted piece of was-metal. And you're probably going to wind up packing the line solid with epoxy inside too and render it useless anyway. Even if it did hold and wasn't clogged, it would blow out as soon as you apply pressure to the brake pedal. You think you don't have to time to fix your brake line the right way now? How about having to fix your damaged car and wrecking someone elses when you rear-end them after the brakes give out. Replacing the steel line is the only way to do it.
And you asked why can't they be made of rubber? It's for safety and functionality reasons. Hard steel lines are a lot more durable than rubber, at least until they rust out. Steel ismore puncture proof than rubber. And rubber expands under pressure, so a long runwould give you a soft dead pedal like you have now, even without a leak.
Some hotrodders like to run stainless braided hose as an alternative to hard lines, but that's not what you're dealing with.

 

good thinkin...thanks

 

noticed my e-barke actually did come off the adjuster. Also, does anyone know of a way to bleed brakes when the bleeder valve is rusted close?[:@] (Drum brakes)

 

Wire brush the bleeder well, and let it soak with some PB Blaster for a bit, then heat the crap out of it with a torch. Otherwise you can loosen the brake line as it goes into the wheel cylinder and bleed the line that way. But if there is air in the wheel cyl, you won't get it out without cracking open the bleeder valve. If getting the bleeder loose is hopeless and you can't get the air out, then replacing the wheel cylinder is going to be your only other option.

 

Replace the wheel cylinders. The nipple WILL break off, even after you soak it and heat it. Murphy says so. They are cheap and its a easy job.....but be prepared to replace the brake lines from the valve out, as you are probably gonny break the line when you take it off the cylinder. You would think that after all these years somebody would come up with a better way......