I'm slowly getting my grandma's old electra "Miss "E" " back in running order again. After an 18 year "rest" she needs a little TLC....okay a lot. I've been working on getting the miss out of the idle and noticed that the brake booster won't hold a vacuum. (At the booster,I capped the line to the surge tank and put a vacuum pump with gauge on the port that goes to the intake manifold. It won't even begin to build vacuum in the booster.) This along with the fact that the pedal is very stiff to stop the old girl and I've gone through all of the brakes tells me the is a problem. 1) I'm pretty sure this indicates a bad booster...right? 2) Can I repair/ rebuild this or do I need a new one? 3) where is the best place to get the required parts? Thanks for the help. :grin:
Tough rebuilt kit to find. You can probably hear a hiss from inside the car when the brakes are applied, listen where the actuating rod from your brake pedal assembly goes through the firewall, it is typically worn/oxidized/cracked/missing rubber that causes this problem.
I don't hear any noise when the brake is applied. Its kind of strange really because I think the power brakes worked before. It's kind of a new problem, since I rebuilt the wheel cylinders and bled the system. ( The wheel cylinders were leaking in the front) Its kind of hard to say for sure because the left front was leaking badly so the car pulled hard to the right but it didn't seem like it took much pedal pressure to stop. Now there are no leaks and the pedal is firm but it takes considerable pedal effort to stop and, as I stated before, the booster wont hold a vacuum. Maybe something came undone inside the booster? I'm not quite sure how they work. I thought it used some sort of diaphram. Sounds like I need to do more research on these things before I get too crazy. Thanks
