When I rebuild the brakes on Eisenhower, my 54, the booster was bad and
rather than having it rebuilt, I just bypassed it. The symption was
that the brakes would lock up. Without the booster, the car stopped
fine. A little more leg was required but not anything that was
uncomfortable. While the power booster was standard on Imperials it was
an option on New Yorkers which was an identical car except for trim..
On these cars the booster is just that, a booster. It sits between the
master cylinder and the wheel cylinders and amplifies the pressure
produced by the master cylinder. It is designed to fail in the 'pass
through' position so you still have manual brakes.
I've never heard the three week thing. I doubt it was designed that
way. The booster is pretty simple, a few check balls, springs, and a
diaphram.
I suspect your master cylinder is bad. If your pedal is hard, you
probably don't have air in the lines. If your pedal goes to the floor
you have air in the lines. Bleed them and try again. It's a pain to
bleed these brakes because the master cylinder access is under the
drivers foot and you have to pull the carpet back. I made an adapter
and pressure bled mine with a homemade bleeder made from a garden
sprayer. The master cylinder is so small you have to be careful not to
let it run dry during the normal, pump and open valve approach.
Good luck.
Kerry
Captden30@xxxxxxx wrote:
> i have sent this post in twice and have not seen it on the site. i
> will try once more, but it is rather long and i do not type very well.
> i finally took my 53 imperial out on the road. at first everything
> seemed fine. then the brakes started to not work properly and the car
> would barely stop, even at low sped. the brakes felt like they were
> not grabbing. i put a rebuilt booster in last fall and the car has not
> been driven except in my yard and not often. i called the rebuilder
> and he told me if you do not use the booster at least once every 3
> weeks it can go bad. this seems illogical to me, does anyone know of
> this to be true? i was told to check the vacuum, it should be 17
> pounds or higher. i just got a guage so i will check that as soon as i
> can. the rebuilder said he will redo it for me if needed since i was
> not informed about the three week rule. i know that is a nice gesture
> but the labor involved is something i do not look forward to. any
> suggestions? dennis
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