Hydroboost brakes

Redundancy is a good thing. My career is in aviation and everything has a second and third back up. All hydraulic would be a single point of failure, to me.

 

Cars don't need as much redundancy as planes, since they don't have to land when something goes wrong....

 

True, but it is a hard habit to break. I've been doing it for almost 40 years.

 

I put a 'remote' Hydroboost on the frame rail of the truck in my avatar. The unit itself was sourced from a junkyard Astrovan. I've paid between $15 and $45 for them and rebuild them with a kit from Pirate Jacks-

https://piratejack.net/2771004-hydr..._5JPY-ftI8nJxAgd3QVKL0JTyyUexl-UaAhRyEALw_wcB

Here's a picture of the frame bracket as I was fabricating it - the flange itself was bought on ebay and welded into the assembly. This one has a Corvette master cylinder for four wheel discs. Whatever master you use, you need to be particularly careful that the gap between the hydroboost unit and the master has the correct gap.


I modified my Saginaw 'ham can' pump reservoir to accept the return line from the Hydroboost by welding a -6 AN male fitting onto it. Adapters are available for the three ports on the hydroboost unit to enable you to run -6 AN/JIC standard hydraulic hose.

I'd never driven a car/truck with Hydroboost and it is a distinctly different sensation than a vacuum booster. There is very little modulation with the distance the brake pedal is moved. Once all the slack in the linkage is taken up, about a half inch of pedal movement in my case, all the brake pedal modulation is from the pressure exerted from your foot. The brakes are very effective and with a little practice you can have quite short panic stops - just don't slam on the brakes!

 

Very cool.

 

My biggest complaint about hydroboost is that power steering issues can make the brakes feel spongy.

For all the people wanting these because of space or big cams, why not just run manual brakes? My daily driver for 12 years had manual brakes and their performance never left me wanting more

 

Boy, mine has.....I am regretting foregoing the booster.

 

I have HB on my Power Wagon that is diesel powered . It also has a vacuum pump. The brakes were vacuum boosted from factory , stopped needed to be planned . After HB install sparks will fly off the front bumper when needed . Do not tee the power steering and HB return line . If in a hard turn and hard braking one will suffer boost . I used a GM pick a part HB booster , easy swap and as I said it works x 10

 

I’ve done 2. Best brakes I’ve ever had
Super simple. Junkyard booster off the shelf lines.
the only fab was push rod mods to fit the pedal.

one is manual steering. You still have to run the 2 return lines for non PS.
the mine that goes from the MS to the PS box is routed back to the pump.

 

61 Chevy with hydraulic clutch