Alan,

The first thing that you want to check is the brake fluid reservoir which
is behind the clock or tach on the dash. Carefully lift the cover off of
the instrument cluster and you will find the fluid reservoir. If the
reservoir is empty then you have a leak in one or more brake lines or wheel
cylinders. If the reservoir is full, then the problem is in the master
cylinder.

Ric

At 07:45 AM 10/6/2000 -0500, Alan Bosch wrote:
>List,
>
>On the way to work this morning, I stomped on the brake peddle, and rather
>than offering the smooth, steady, reassuring firmness of a functioning
>system, it is nothing short of mush.  Peddle was mush, with no stopping
>effort, to a certain point, about half-way thru the distance between
>normal, at rest position, and the floor.  It hesitated, like hitting some
>kind of stop, then pushed past thru until I could feel the brakes - only
>the fronts, based on a seat-of-the-pants evaluation - grabbed, and rather
>poorly at best.  Oh, yeah, the dashboard brake light, above the headlight
>switch, is on - like the hand break is engaged.
>
> From the feel of things, replacing pads, drums, rotors, calipers, wheel
>cylinders, may not cure the problem.  I'm only going to have one shot at
>repairing this between now and BBTT next weekend.  Thoughts and guidence
>welcomed, encouraged, and really appreciated.
>
>Alan Bosch
>& Phred ('88 Wolfsburg)
>Rochester, NY