Attention: TDR Forum Junkies Hi all,
For the last few years I have been working on a solution for the vacuum brake booster failures. In years past it was a rather easy problem to solve. When the booster leaked you replaced it with a NEW booster from Bendix. Ok great. Bendix had plenty of them. . Well Bendix shut down its booster plant in 1992. Again... no problem. I bought a bunch of them before all the inventory went away. I did not think I would live long enough to use them all up... . Well I have. Again I thought it was no problem. I would just buy a reman... . WRONG ! I tried that and the results were some what less than favorable !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have now put 3 remanned boosters in my 92 flat bed in the past 2 years... . This is really ******* me off . I guess I'll have to solve this one also. .
The problem with these boosters is that the rubber parts shrink as they age causing them to leak. Leaking master cylinders also ruin boosters by allowing the brake fluid to leak out out of the back of the cylinder down inside the vacuum chamber.
In the old days I used to rebuild my Midland made boosters. It was easy to do. They came apart with a big v band clamp and a bolt. But the Bendix units such as our trucks use are crimped together. They were throw aways . They were never supposed to be fixed. Hmmmmm. . The aftermarket rebuilds them all the time... . How are they getting them apart with out ruining the cans in the process... . I have tried every way the rebuilders have recommended but never quite got the results I wanted. . It turns out that the rebuilders violently take them apart . Not exactly what I had in mind. The bottom line is that 1) the rebuilders are mangling the cans during tear down 2) They are NOT replacing the rubber diaphrams most of the time 3) They are mangling the cans again when they recrimp them.
So Last week I started from scratch. I stopped listening to rebuilders and developed a new way to get them apart WITHOUT DAMAGING THE CANS AT ALL !. And it is easy and requires no special tools.
Ok now we have to put them together. . I don't like crimping them. I prefer bolts. So I machined 2 large rings on the lathe. One ring will go on the front can , The other on the back, Then I drilled and tapped the rings to take bolts... . Problem solved !
As a side note. The smaller brake booster rebuilders that built good units have pretty much all either stopped doing light truck/ car or gone out of business. There are several reasons for this. The main reason is because of a company that calls themselves A1 Cardone. The other is the overseas competition. The carone boosters are built down in Mexico. (Cheap labor) The booster cores they use are often JUNK and should HAVE been scrapped. They also only replace the rubber parts that they absolutely have to replace. The rest they reuse. . The old rubber parts are washed in a solvent that causes the rubber to slightly swell. This is to be sure that the booster will seal up nicely using the old rubber. Then a few months to a year later the solvent evaporates and the rubber shrinks back . The booster starts leaking and your back buying another one.
Cardone is so cheap that they do not even paint them. They leave them bare steel. To make matters worse they put oil all over them as well as silicone rubber lube over spray on the cans to keep them from rusting. It makes it a real pain in the *** to paint ! The last booster I bought from them for one of our trucks cost me 67. 00. Nobody can build a booster that cheap and do it properly !
My goal is to rebuild a booster properly and inexpensively . I now have all the parts to rebuild them. The parts to rebuild these boosters have never been offered for sale to the retail public. I am going to make a video on how to rebuild them and post it on you tube. I am going to make the parts available to everyone. Stay tuned for more on this ... ///MM
For the last few years I have been working on a solution for the vacuum brake booster failures. In years past it was a rather easy problem to solve. When the booster leaked you replaced it with a NEW booster from Bendix. Ok great. Bendix had plenty of them. . Well Bendix shut down its booster plant in 1992. Again... no problem. I bought a bunch of them before all the inventory went away. I did not think I would live long enough to use them all up... . Well I have. Again I thought it was no problem. I would just buy a reman... . WRONG ! I tried that and the results were some what less than favorable !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have now put 3 remanned boosters in my 92 flat bed in the past 2 years... . This is really ******* me off . I guess I'll have to solve this one also. .
The problem with these boosters is that the rubber parts shrink as they age causing them to leak. Leaking master cylinders also ruin boosters by allowing the brake fluid to leak out out of the back of the cylinder down inside the vacuum chamber.
In the old days I used to rebuild my Midland made boosters. It was easy to do. They came apart with a big v band clamp and a bolt. But the Bendix units such as our trucks use are crimped together. They were throw aways . They were never supposed to be fixed. Hmmmmm. . The aftermarket rebuilds them all the time... . How are they getting them apart with out ruining the cans in the process... . I have tried every way the rebuilders have recommended but never quite got the results I wanted. . It turns out that the rebuilders violently take them apart . Not exactly what I had in mind. The bottom line is that 1) the rebuilders are mangling the cans during tear down 2) They are NOT replacing the rubber diaphrams most of the time 3) They are mangling the cans again when they recrimp them.
So Last week I started from scratch. I stopped listening to rebuilders and developed a new way to get them apart WITHOUT DAMAGING THE CANS AT ALL !. And it is easy and requires no special tools.
Ok now we have to put them together. . I don't like crimping them. I prefer bolts. So I machined 2 large rings on the lathe. One ring will go on the front can , The other on the back, Then I drilled and tapped the rings to take bolts... . Problem solved !
As a side note. The smaller brake booster rebuilders that built good units have pretty much all either stopped doing light truck/ car or gone out of business. There are several reasons for this. The main reason is because of a company that calls themselves A1 Cardone. The other is the overseas competition. The carone boosters are built down in Mexico. (Cheap labor) The booster cores they use are often JUNK and should HAVE been scrapped. They also only replace the rubber parts that they absolutely have to replace. The rest they reuse. . The old rubber parts are washed in a solvent that causes the rubber to slightly swell. This is to be sure that the booster will seal up nicely using the old rubber. Then a few months to a year later the solvent evaporates and the rubber shrinks back . The booster starts leaking and your back buying another one.
Cardone is so cheap that they do not even paint them. They leave them bare steel. To make matters worse they put oil all over them as well as silicone rubber lube over spray on the cans to keep them from rusting. It makes it a real pain in the *** to paint ! The last booster I bought from them for one of our trucks cost me 67. 00. Nobody can build a booster that cheap and do it properly !
My goal is to rebuild a booster properly and inexpensively . I now have all the parts to rebuild them. The parts to rebuild these boosters have never been offered for sale to the retail public. I am going to make a video on how to rebuild them and post it on you tube. I am going to make the parts available to everyone. Stay tuned for more on this ... ///MM
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