I had the pleasure of experiencing a brake booster failure while drving
last week. Thank God for emergency brakes. Hmmm, I guess that's why
they call it that.
I was quite surprised that my booster would fail since it had been
resleeved and rebuilt little more than a year ago. I am using silicone
brake fluid. The fluid was leaking past the atmospheric piston into
the chamber. When I took the booster apart I could not find any
significant wear or any clear signs of a failure. The only thing I did
notice was that the rubber seal that seals the cylinder from the
atmospheric chamber seemed to move rather freely over the shaft. I had
a spare piston and the seal did not seem to move as freely. I called
Smitty and explained my problem and he suggested a very simple solution:
Since the seal is held in place with that triangular plastic cover,
place a brass grommet between the seal and the cover to compress it and
thus expand the seal and fix the leak.
I must admit that I felt funny about placing a piece of brass in there.
Upon further examination I noticed a white plastic spacer immediately
behind the rubber seal. This spacer has a raised ridge that fits into
a depression on the back of the seal. It occurred to me that I could
simply trun the seal around to get the same compression effect. Sure
enough, it worked.
Glad I don't have to pay 80 bucks for a servo rebuild kit.
CNA
|