ROFL, not at you but the hitec servo, I have always warned people about them.

But now to the problem in handI bet that you dont have a spring on the throttle linkage. Am I right? I guess that you have 2 collets either side of the slider on the servo arm?

If so then it's no wonder the brakes dont work.

But to confirm all of this could you please do some pics of the linkage setup. They really would help.