Ever since the 1600+ miles trip to the Midwest Imperial Club meet in Iowa,
the Newporker has not started or cold-idled as well as it does normally. At
first, I thought it was just the low grade USA gasoline I had been burning
but that was not the case. The Newporker is tough so even that low grade
fuel is no match for it. While troubleshooting today, I noticed that each
time I would run the engine and let it stop, I could hear a vacuum leak for
about 30 seconds and then it would stop. I checked and checked and then I
finally found that the vacuum was leaking at the base of where the brake
master cylinder mates to the brake booster. Now, I am no genius but I don't
think there should even BE vacuum there if everything is working properly.
A quick check of the booster that I had recently removed from my T&C
revealed that if there was vacuum at that point, the booster diaphram would
probably be damaged. I took that booster and connected the Newporker's
vacuum lines to it and started the engine. There was no apparent leaks
anywhere and the booster operated normally. The T&C's booster was covered
with surface rust so I sand blasted it and painted it. It is drying in my
garage right now so I guess all that is left is to install it. I am not
looking forward to trying to unbolt that booster from inside the car. I
guess a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
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