"CHARLES ANGELICH" bravely wrote to "WAYNE CHIRNSIDE"
(22 Mar 05  23:54:00)
 --- on the heady topic of "Win98FE Harddrivicide?"

 CA> I took my Lincoln to a local mechanic and told him "This is a
 CA> heavy car and it HAS to stop when I hit the brakes". My brakes
 CA> had gone out (to the floor) and I wanted that to NOT happen
 CA> again. I did not set a price nor ask for 'cheap'. I got the car
 CA> back and two weeks later driving home the same thing happened
 CA> _again_. I was furious but remained calm when I returned the
 CA> car and was told he had replaced everything _but_ the rear
 CA> cylinders which were both leaking fluid (profusely). I
 CA> instructed him to replace the cylinders, bill me for the parts,
 CA> but no additional labor which he did. So far the brakes have
 CA> been working but now I'm 'gun-shy' with very little confidence
 CA> the brakes will continue to work.

Losing the brakes twice like that can be traumatizing indeed! Recall,
GM has an historical problem with rear drum brakes. Many models were
recalled because of too thin guage steel used for the backplate. The
cylinders simply pop out of alignment because the backplate buckles.
Rust just makes the problem worse. Replacing the cylinders alone is
just a stop gap measure. There may be a hidden guarantee on the
brake backplate if there was a recall. Check this out first thing.

 M*i*k*e

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