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HYDRA-BOOST BRAKE KIT

temsinc

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I have a 70 Barracuda w/318 that has a mild cam in it and it doesn't make allot of vacuum which we all know effects braking the car especially at idle in the middle of the summer. I need to pump the pedal in order to build up enough brake pedal to keep the car stopped.

Any suggestions? I am contemplating hydra-boost kit, any feedback from members who have converted to this system? Thank you in advance.

Darcy
 

Adam

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Hydro boost is for brake pedal assist. If you are having to pump the brakes you either have a bad master cyl, air in the lines, spongy rubber lines, or out of adjustment shoes. Some of the old Mopar had manual brakes and didn’t need pumping if everything was in order. Easiest thing, before replacing parts, is to bleed the brakes, and inspect the lines & wheel cylinders for weeping; adjust the rear shoes, etc.
 
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Knock Out

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Love my hydro boost with the wilwood disc brakes
Stops on a dime
Highly recommend
 

moparleo

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I would recommend a complete "tune-up" on your brake system. You didn't say if you have disc brakes or not. If you do, it will be easier to diagnose your problem. Find a spot with plenty of clean space to work in. Get a fresh/sealed quart bottle of quality brake fluid, a few cans of spray Brake-clean, plenty of clean shop towels or equivalent, tube of white lithium grease, brake adjusting spoon tool, wheel cylinder/caliper bleeder wrench. 100/150 grit emery cloth strip (comes on a roll) strip, or sand paper to clean shoes/drum friction surfaces. Brake bleeding supplies, transparent hose to attach to bleeders. Transparent, plastic container to drain dirty fluid into.
Remove drums. Inspect shoes for wear/contamination from leaking seals/wheel cylinders. If leakage is found, repair before going any further. Repair as needed, if cylinders, replace. rebuilding is slightly cheaper but you must do it properly, use more tools, ( hone, drill etc..) New, quality brand..no more problems. Replace brake system parts in pair, always. Inspect hardware and springs for damage, weakness. Replace if unsure . Not very expensive. Remember that the brake system is constantly exposed to heat and this weakens metal parts and springs. Check brake drums for being within mfg. specs. Spec will be cast into drum. 10.060 for example. May be 9" If out of spec, replace in pairs. The will keep braking forces equal on both sides. Spray the brake dust with a spray bottle of water to keep dust from flying in the air. DO NOT BREATH. The you can use the Brake cleaner to get the stubborn dirt off. Be sure to lube the backing plate at the brake shoe contact areas with a small amount of the Lithium grease when reassembling. Adjust the drum brakes to spec. There is more but you should get a service manual to get all details. After making sure that the mechanicals are repaired /verified in good working order we can now totally flush the brake hydraulic system. Check inside of master cylinder for sediment. Check outside of M/C and areas where the M/C attaches to the booster for evidence of any fluid leakage. If there is, get a NEW M/C. Not a rebuilt. Check booster for vacuum leakage. Replace if faulty. You can use a quality rebuilt Booster if necessary. Drain fluid from M/C. Use a baster or you can use paper towels to soak up fluid. Fill M/C with virgin fluid, go to the furthest point usually the r/r and open bleeder screw with bleeder tube attached. Have someone slowly pump the brake pedal, put something under the pedal to keep it from bottoming out. This can cause damage to the M/C. Make sure to keep M/C topped off while bleeding the fluids. Keep going until clean, clear fluid drains into old fluid container. Close brake bleeder. Continue to the l/r, r/f, l/f until complete system has on cleaner new, clear fluid coming from bleeders. I also like the Hydro-boost system for a lot of reasons. But it is expensive to convert and would be a better upgrade for a car with more performance upgrades that would require a brake system upgrade.
 

Hemi Steve

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I would recommend a complete "tune-up" on your brake system. You didn't say if you have disc brakes or not. If you do, it will be easier to diagnose your problem. Find a spot with plenty of clean space to work in. Get a fresh/sealed quart bottle of quality brake fluid, a few cans of spray Brake-clean, plenty of clean shop towels or equivalent, tube of white lithium grease, brake adjusting spoon tool, wheel cylinder/caliper bleeder wrench. 100/150 grit emery cloth strip (comes on a roll) strip, or sand paper to clean shoes/drum friction surfaces. Brake bleeding supplies, transparent hose to attach to bleeders. Transparent, plastic container to drain dirty fluid into.
Remove drums. Inspect shoes for wear/contamination from leaking seals/wheel cylinders. If leakage is found, repair before going any further. Repair as needed, if cylinders, replace. rebuilding is slightly cheaper but you must do it properly, use more tools, ( hone, drill etc..) New, quality brand..no more problems. Replace brake system parts in pair, always. Inspect hardware and springs for damage, weakness. Replace if unsure . Not very expensive. Remember that the brake system is constantly exposed to heat and this weakens metal parts and springs. Check brake drums for being within mfg. specs. Spec will be cast into drum. 10.060 for example. May be 9" If out of spec, replace in pairs. The will keep braking forces equal on both sides. Spray the brake dust with a spray bottle of water to keep dust from flying in the air. DO NOT BREATH. The you can use the Brake cleaner to get the stubborn dirt off. Be sure to lube the backing plate at the brake shoe contact areas with a small amount of the Lithium grease when reassembling. Adjust the drum brakes to spec. There is more but you should get a service manual to get all details. After making sure that the mechanicals are repaired /verified in good working order we can now totally flush the brake hydraulic system. Check inside of master cylinder for sediment. Check outside of M/C and areas where the M/C attaches to the booster for evidence of any fluid leakage. If there is, get a NEW M/C. Not a rebuilt. Check booster for vacuum leakage. Replace if faulty. You can use a quality rebuilt Booster if necessary. Drain fluid from M/C. Use a baster or you can use paper towels to soak up fluid. Fill M/C with virgin fluid, go to the furthest point usually the r/r and open bleeder screw with bleeder tube attached. Have someone slowly pump the brake pedal, put something under the pedal to keep it from bottoming out. This can cause damage to the M/C. Make sure to keep M/C topped off while bleeding the fluids. Keep going until clean, clear fluid drains into old fluid container. Close brake bleeder. Continue to the l/r, r/f, l/f until complete system has on cleaner new, clear fluid coming from bleeders. I also like the Hydro-boost system for a lot of reasons. But it is expensive to convert and would be a better upgrade for a car with more performance upgrades that would require a brake system upgrade.

There is nothing more important than good brakes on these cars. Doing a complete brake system check as described in this thread is an important first step. I had an issue with my 528 hemi Cuda that had a power disk upgrade on all 4 corners. Braking was only fair in my opinion for normal driving conditions but in a panic stop they were totally inadequate. I ran out of ideas and opinions and bought and installed a hydroboost system from Hydratech. The difference was like night and day. The brakes are excellent now. An excellent investment and on top of it the install was pretty easy and since the vacuum booster is now gone, removal of the left valve cover is easy.

Steve
 
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temsinc

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Messages
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Medicine Hat, AB, Canada
I would recommend a complete "tune-up" on your brake system. You didn't say if you have disc brakes or not. If you do, it will be easier to diagnose your problem. Find a spot with plenty of clean space to work in. Get a fresh/sealed quart bottle of quality brake fluid, a few cans of spray Brake-clean, plenty of clean shop towels or equivalent, tube of white lithium grease, brake adjusting spoon tool, wheel cylinder/caliper bleeder wrench. 100/150 grit emery cloth strip (comes on a roll) strip, or sand paper to clean shoes/drum friction surfaces. Brake bleeding supplies, transparent hose to attach to bleeders. Transparent, plastic container to drain dirty fluid into.
Remove drums. Inspect shoes for wear/contamination from leaking seals/wheel cylinders. If leakage is found, repair before going any further. Repair as needed, if cylinders, replace. rebuilding is slightly cheaper but you must do it properly, use more tools, ( hone, drill etc..) New, quality brand..no more problems. Replace brake system parts in pair, always. Inspect hardware and springs for damage, weakness. Replace if unsure . Not very expensive. Remember that the brake system is constantly exposed to heat and this weakens metal parts and springs. Check brake drums for being within mfg. specs. Spec will be cast into drum. 10.060 for example. May be 9" If out of spec, replace in pairs. The will keep braking forces equal on both sides. Spray the brake dust with a spray bottle of water to keep dust from flying in the air. DO NOT BREATH. The you can use the Brake cleaner to get the stubborn dirt off. Be sure to lube the backing plate at the brake shoe contact areas with a small amount of the Lithium grease when reassembling. Adjust the drum brakes to spec. There is more but you should get a service manual to get all details. After making sure that the mechanicals are repaired /verified in good working order we can now totally flush the brake hydraulic system. Check inside of master cylinder for sediment. Check outside of M/C and areas where the M/C attaches to the booster for evidence of any fluid leakage. If there is, get a NEW M/C. Not a rebuilt. Check booster for vacuum leakage. Replace if faulty. You can use a quality rebuilt Booster if necessary. Drain fluid from M/C. Use a baster or you can use paper towels to soak up fluid. Fill M/C with virgin fluid, go to the furthest point usually the r/r and open bleeder screw with bleeder tube attached. Have someone slowly pump the brake pedal, put something under the pedal to keep it from bottoming out. This can cause damage to the M/C. Make sure to keep M/C topped off while bleeding the fluids. Keep going until clean, clear fluid drains into old fluid container. Close brake bleeder. Continue to the l/r, r/f, l/f until complete system has on cleaner new, clear fluid coming from bleeders. I also like the Hydro-boost system for a lot of reasons. But it is expensive to convert and would be a better upgrade for a car with more performance upgrades that would require a brake system upgrade.

Thank you for the in-depth step by step brake service. A quick question, when one is at the final stages and BLEEDING the system w/ new brake fluid. Do you fill the MC and put the cover on it prior to pumping the brake pedal or can you keep the cover off?
 

temsinc

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One last question...how much vacuum is required for the brake booster to function properly? does the car need to be at operating temperature to get an accurate reading? I guess that's two questions. Thanks.

Darcy
 

Hemi Steve

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Regarding vacuum...more is better. If everything else is good, 15 to 18inhg will normally be adequate. The problem here is that so many of our cars have brake systems that are put together from parts taken from different models of different cars all together so there is no way to know how it will all work together. The devil always resides in the details. At the end of the day what caused the brakes to work is hydraulic pressure at the calipers. The needed pressure is also dependent on the details of the caliper. Generally we need 1500 to 2000psi with a heavy application of pedal force. Your needs may be different.

Steve
 

Adam

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You can just lay the M/C cover on top, while bleeding.
 

moparleo

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Very true, as mentioned above. One major problem not only with brakes but with any mechanical system is parts compatibility. We deal with " systems " and the parts must complement each other. Try to stay as close to stock in your parts selection as these are proven to perform. When you start to try to "improve" things, sometimes it goes the other way. Once the system is working properly, you can start to upgrade . Always research what you want to do before you buy anything. Good luck. Happy Mopar
 
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