I have this friend with a '72 GS and he has had brake problems for 4 years. His pedal is extremely hard and he has a hard time stopping it. I told him 4 years ago that we should test the booster. He told me that it was new and it had to be good! He changed the calipers, pads, rotors, shoes and spring kits. The same result. After this I asked if we could test the booster. He declined Fast-forward 3 years and he had to make a hard stop in traffic and had to run into the shoulder to prevent hitting the car in front of him. Again I suggested to look at the Booster. Again, it is new!! Come a few weeks ago he had trouble stopping at the drag strip. I told him the Chassis Manual has a procedure to test the booster. He bought an expensive ( about $700) hydro-boost setup. Luckily it wasn't right for the Buick, because I insisted to test the booster, after him telling me that he doesn't make enough vaccum for the brakes (we have the same cam and my brakes are great), he finally relented. We followed the Manual procedure and the check valve was bad! He previously tested it by blowing in it (not scientific). We switched it out with one he had in his Corvette and guess what? Good BRAKES!! The moral here is sometimes you are too close to an issue and get blinded by complicated fixes. I brake (haha) his chops about it now but I am glad he is safe. If anyone needs the procedure for testing out the booster, let me know and I can post it.
I have received MANY new boosters at my shop that were N/G. Mostly the china stuff, but even from the major suppliers. And, I ALWAYS replace the check valve.
Yep! Just went thought this with my neighbors Elky. Three years ago, we removed the perfectly good booster that was on there since 1969 in favor of an MBM cad plated booster. He took the car out three weeks ago and the pedal was rock hard. He was incredulous that it was the booster. We swapped it and he's got a nice soft pedal again. Just cause its new, doesn't mean its not bad. He wound up calling MBM to complain to them and they we're nice enough to exchange his defective booster for a new one.
You get a 50/50 chance with this new stuff. I had a similar issue with a booster that came with a Baer kit. After the install,I had zero brakes. I bled,bled,rebled,then bled again. Nothing. I suspected the booster,but the customer didn't want me to remove it because it was new,and came with the kit. I did anyway. All I did was remove the booster,mounted the master cylinder to the firewall,and hooked everything up like a manual brake car. Walla! His brakes were the best they ever were. I don't think he ever did out a booster back in it. He did contact Baer,and got the typical "we've never had a problem" and "we don't use that style booster anymore". If you never had a problem,then why would you change what you are selling? Hmmm.
That's the standard line from any vendor- "your the first person to complain" or similar variation. I don't know which 12 year old girl in that Chinese factory needs to get fired, but they better do something
How are manual Disc brakes compared to Manual Drum. I kind have been wondering about if the pedal effort is much more. I actually like manual brakes, may be one of the few.
My 72 W-30 was manual disc. It required maybe a little more effort that drums but Jennifer had no problem driving it back and forth to work
Glad to hear that you persisted and helped your friend make his car safe again before it was crashed. Going years with that issue had to be a real pain for him. A friend (also a member of V8Buick.com) sent these photos to me recently of a reproduction brake booster (made in China) that failed on an Olds. Moral is that just because it's new doesn't mean it's perfect.
Wow that is scary. I do my best to buy American parts for everything. My wheel cylinders were Delco and I was lucky enough to get American made rebuild kits. I had front wheel bearings fail. Didn't know they were China as I thought Nationals were made in USA.
