Before I duck out of sight ...
A classmate in the early 70's couldn't get his brake pedal to return more than half way without pulling on it manually. He thought he was 'fixing' it when he added a 'shadetree aftermarket' return spring. What he didn't know was the piston in his master cylinder was gummed up.
He discovered his 'solution' made things worse while he was backing out of his driveway ... he pushed on the brake pedal to slow his car and the pedal went all the way to the floor, easy-peasy.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mentioned he'd 'fixed' a problem with his engine by turning the idle up to 900-1000 RPMs. By the time he got clutch disengaged, he was traveling backwards at about 15 mph, with no brakes. Fortunately, a large tree stopped his progress. (Considering he was going backwards, I suppose 'congress' is more appropriate than 'progress.')
We found the pushrod that connects his brake pedal lever (bellcrank?) with the master cylinder laying in the driveway, roughly where he'd been parked. The spring he used to 'fix' the brake pedal problem pulled the pedal back far enough for the pushrod to drop completely out of his car. (In many cases, master cylinder back pressure is all that's holding the pushrod in place.)
