John Kirby
Active Member
Here's the saga of my 66 New Yorker and it's brake booster. I did look at several threads on boosters before posting here.
30 or so years ago when I was a starving marvin and trying to keep the cruiser alive a mechanic friend mentioned a shop near where I lived had a 72 Newport they were going to send to the junkyard. It had disk brakes on it so I stopped by and talked to the guy running the shop and for $25 I could have anything I wanted off of it. It was a good deal so I jacked it up and removed the calipers, rotors and spindles along with the dual chamber master cylinder/prop valve assy. Everything bolted on my 66 and worked very well.
20 years later as I was doing the resto I found the master cylinder had puked brake fluid into the booster. So I went online and found a cardone version that bolted in place. While doing the engine rebuild I installed a hotter cam, so a lot less vacuum for the booster. (~15" when going downhill while in low gear) Seemed to work ok while driving around the subdivision at slow speeds but I knew a vacuum pump was needed. So I finally installed one several months ago in anticipation of going to the Midwest Mopar show in Stillwater. Testing didn't go as anticipated, I needed the leg of Hercules to stop so I started looking into other options.
Reading a few threads here I discovered cardone is to be avoided. Meanwhile I can't find a booster that is a direct replacement for the original. There are a lot of boosters for b-body cars but they all have a bracket on the back that shifts the position of the unit. Not that big of a deal if they will bolt into the same location and connect to the brake pedal properly.
Most of them are dual chamber so they would help with disc brakes. Has anyone tried using one of these on a c body of 65-68 or so vintage? Which model is the best option and what mods are needed if it will work? The master cylinder has 4 studs for mounting.
Seems likely these will be around for more years than our beloved c body versions. Installing new lines from the master cylinder to the prop valve is a simple task, mounting to the firewall and the pedal connection seem to be the unknown areas. Here's a photo of what is currently installed. There seems to be enough room for the b-body version.
30 or so years ago when I was a starving marvin and trying to keep the cruiser alive a mechanic friend mentioned a shop near where I lived had a 72 Newport they were going to send to the junkyard. It had disk brakes on it so I stopped by and talked to the guy running the shop and for $25 I could have anything I wanted off of it. It was a good deal so I jacked it up and removed the calipers, rotors and spindles along with the dual chamber master cylinder/prop valve assy. Everything bolted on my 66 and worked very well.
20 years later as I was doing the resto I found the master cylinder had puked brake fluid into the booster. So I went online and found a cardone version that bolted in place. While doing the engine rebuild I installed a hotter cam, so a lot less vacuum for the booster. (~15" when going downhill while in low gear) Seemed to work ok while driving around the subdivision at slow speeds but I knew a vacuum pump was needed. So I finally installed one several months ago in anticipation of going to the Midwest Mopar show in Stillwater. Testing didn't go as anticipated, I needed the leg of Hercules to stop so I started looking into other options.
Reading a few threads here I discovered cardone is to be avoided. Meanwhile I can't find a booster that is a direct replacement for the original. There are a lot of boosters for b-body cars but they all have a bracket on the back that shifts the position of the unit. Not that big of a deal if they will bolt into the same location and connect to the brake pedal properly.
Most of them are dual chamber so they would help with disc brakes. Has anyone tried using one of these on a c body of 65-68 or so vintage? Which model is the best option and what mods are needed if it will work? The master cylinder has 4 studs for mounting.
Seems likely these will be around for more years than our beloved c body versions. Installing new lines from the master cylinder to the prop valve is a simple task, mounting to the firewall and the pedal connection seem to be the unknown areas. Here's a photo of what is currently installed. There seems to be enough room for the b-body version.