Hi all, so the '61 Lesabre i recently bought had no master cylinder/brake booster. So i ordered a kit that had both. Difference is it's a dual reservoir master cylinder. I'm having trouble figuring out how to hook up both lines as only one brake line comes up into the engine area and i can't find where it splits. I've got the '61 chassis manual but that has no disgrams for brake lines. If anyone's got any ideas please let me know. (And if it's obvious, i apologize I'm newer to cars). As a side note, the original booster had two lines, one going to the engine and the other going to the vacuum tank. This new booster only has a fitting for one line. Do i need to find an adapter or do i only need one? Thanks for any and all help 20210424_143233 by Seraziel posted Apr 24, 2021 at 2:52 PM 20210424_143243 by Seraziel posted Apr 24, 2021 at 2:52 PM
Seraziel, The brake line from the master goes to a "Spliter" secured to the frame just under the master on the left side. The brake line that comes out of the spliter & goes to the rear gets removed & a plug of the proper size goes into the now vacate spot. You will need to make up a new brake line to the spilter from the master. The other port on the master now connects to the line going to the rear with a connector fitting. Don't forget to put a "curl" in the line for the front as the frame of the car & the booster attached to the body has movement/flex. The rear line can stay as is because there will be enough line to flex. As for the vacuum. The one way valve is attached to the intake manifold with a hose coming out of it going to the vacuum tank & the hose coming out of the vacuum tank going to the booster. You don't need two one way valves, but you could. IF your going to eliminate the engine side of the one way valve you need to remove the fitting that goes into the manifold & get the proper size fitting to fit into the manifold & run it straight. Now looking at the pics more closely it looks like the engine has been replaced with something newer. It doesn't Iook like a Buick engine. I can see the valve attached to the hose coming out of the manifold. You need to remove that valve from the hose. When/if you replace that hose it can be one piece coming from the manifold to the booster. Just use the correct hose made for vacuum supply for brakes. It is pretty thick/re-inforced hose as you don't want this hose to be collaped from the vacuum supply of the engine. Also, the fitting into the manifold has to have a bigger outlet on it. The booster will/can need volume to operate the brakes properly. Just my thoughts. Tom T.
Thank you so much for the info, that helps a lot. And yeah, the previous owner swapped in a chevy 350. It's created some inconveniences but I'll make do. Thanks again!
Another quick question as i'm going to be tackling these brake lines this week. Do you happen to know the size of that line/fitting that goes from the splitter to the rear? Many thanks.
