Brake Booster 70 Kadett Rallye

[Ray Morley]

With the car running the brake pedal goes right to the floor. The brake fluid resevoir is empty.

The question is: Does the system need fluid in it to put resitance on the brake pedal?

[baz]

yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ray Morley]

Thanks Baz............

For some reason I thought the Booster would work if the system had no fluid in it.

[namba209]

Well the booster will work with no fluid in the MC. It will just make the pedal go to the floor a lot easier. The booster works with a vacuum chamber on the MC side separated from the firewall side by a rubber diaphragm. Whe you apply the brake pedal, ambient air is allowed into the firewall side of the chamber. The pressure differential between ambient air pressure on one side of the diaphragm and vacuum on the other give you a power boost application to the brake pedal action. HTH.

[jlthunder]

Originally Posted by Ray Morley With the car running the brake pedal goes right to the floor. The brake fluid resevoir is empty. The question is: Does the system need fluid in it to put resitance on the brake pedal?

A word of caution. Please learn how the braking system works before tinkering with it. If not, you can cause a world of harm to yourself and others if you just "forget" one thing. If this is your first time working on a braking system, please have an experienced person review your work before taking it out on the road. Remember to work Safely.

[Opelkurt]

Originally Posted by jlthunder A word of caution. Please learn how the braking system works before tinkering with it. If not, you can cause a world of harm to yourself and others if you just "forget" one thing. If this is your first time working on a braking system, please have an experienced person review your work before taking it out on the road. Remember to work Safely.

Damn good advice. I'm lucky I survived my younger days of "learn to fix the car while you drive it". With today's 70 mph zones and the number of idiots driving urban-assault SUVs while yacking it up on their cellphones, our old iron has to be in tip-top working order to get us home to drive another day.

I'm amazed at the projects people will tackle with no mechanical knowledge or skills at all. It's important to remember that other lives may be put in jeopardy if the work is faulty. Best the know those repair manuals forward-and-backwards, and proceed with caution and diligence.

-Kurt

[Ray Morley]

Thanks for the tips.

The car will be going into a shop to have the brakes totally overhauled and a new exhaust system installed.