Brakes!
I can't believe how well the brakes work on the bus now.
The brakes were the first major thing I knew needed to be fixed when I got the bus. I had to pump them two or three times to get good pressure in the brake lines plus the brake fluid reservoir wouldn't hold anything. Fluid would just leak out the master cylinder onto the floor.
I considered doing the work myself but with all the hydraulic lines and unfamiliar territory plus the safety issues of brakes I figured it was a job best left to a trusted professional. So, Friday Quality Coaches did a great job installing a new master cylinder, new rear slave cylinders (they came with the bus, stored under the back seat!) and new rear brakes.
That worked great, and I didn't need to pump the brakes anymore. But, my right leg was getting pretty tired pushing so hard to stop the thing. That made sense because it's twice as heavy as the Ghia and the brakes aren't much different. But, I did know it came with a brake booster and that was likely disconnected.
Sure enough, when I inspected the engine I found a big, fat vacuum tube coming out of the intake manifold plugged with a large bolt. I just didn't know where it was supposed to lead to.
This morning I started searching for a fuel leak issue and found the other end of the vacuum line to the brake booster just sitting on the engine. I invested about $10 in parts between a new vacuum line at Napa and a brass coupler from the plumbing department of Home Depot. Once it was hooked up in the Home Depot parking lot I started it up, fearing there was some leak in the vacuum line that would make the engine run like crap.
Good luck so far, the engine ran just fine. Then, I drove it out of my parking space, down the parking isle and tapped the brake.
I felt like I was going to fly through the windshield! I couldn't believe how well that booster worked.
Now I have to use my leg muscles to keep the weight of my leg from pushing too hard on the brake, otherwise I'm screeching to a halt!
I've been told by the Bus experts at TheSamba to keep an eye on it. There could be a reason the brake booster wasn't hooked up. If the vacuum canister/servo unit that is the brake booster has a leak that could show up over time and the booster would need a rebuild. Some place in Texas does rebuilds, apparently, for only $90, so that wouldn't be a big deal.
I'm betting (hoping) that the line was not so much disconnected as it was just not reconnected when the engine got rebuilt. I've heard of problems with the brake booster such as the vacuum line leaking and therefore causing the engine to not idle/run right. That may have been the case before the rebuild and one of the quick, hack job fixes to make the engine run better was to disconnect and plug the brake booster line.
Time will tell on this one. Until then, It's nice to know I can stop exactly when I want.
The brakes were the first major thing I knew needed to be fixed when I got the bus. I had to pump them two or three times to get good pressure in the brake lines plus the brake fluid reservoir wouldn't hold anything. Fluid would just leak out the master cylinder onto the floor.
I considered doing the work myself but with all the hydraulic lines and unfamiliar territory plus the safety issues of brakes I figured it was a job best left to a trusted professional. So, Friday Quality Coaches did a great job installing a new master cylinder, new rear slave cylinders (they came with the bus, stored under the back seat!) and new rear brakes.
That worked great, and I didn't need to pump the brakes anymore. But, my right leg was getting pretty tired pushing so hard to stop the thing. That made sense because it's twice as heavy as the Ghia and the brakes aren't much different. But, I did know it came with a brake booster and that was likely disconnected.
Sure enough, when I inspected the engine I found a big, fat vacuum tube coming out of the intake manifold plugged with a large bolt. I just didn't know where it was supposed to lead to.
This morning I started searching for a fuel leak issue and found the other end of the vacuum line to the brake booster just sitting on the engine. I invested about $10 in parts between a new vacuum line at Napa and a brass coupler from the plumbing department of Home Depot. Once it was hooked up in the Home Depot parking lot I started it up, fearing there was some leak in the vacuum line that would make the engine run like crap.
Good luck so far, the engine ran just fine. Then, I drove it out of my parking space, down the parking isle and tapped the brake.
I felt like I was going to fly through the windshield! I couldn't believe how well that booster worked.
Now I have to use my leg muscles to keep the weight of my leg from pushing too hard on the brake, otherwise I'm screeching to a halt!
I've been told by the Bus experts at TheSamba to keep an eye on it. There could be a reason the brake booster wasn't hooked up. If the vacuum canister/servo unit that is the brake booster has a leak that could show up over time and the booster would need a rebuild. Some place in Texas does rebuilds, apparently, for only $90, so that wouldn't be a big deal.
I'm betting (hoping) that the line was not so much disconnected as it was just not reconnected when the engine got rebuilt. I've heard of problems with the brake booster such as the vacuum line leaking and therefore causing the engine to not idle/run right. That may have been the case before the rebuild and one of the quick, hack job fixes to make the engine run better was to disconnect and plug the brake booster line.
Time will tell on this one. Until then, It's nice to know I can stop exactly when I want.
posted by Chris Druckenmiller at 2:57 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Chris, we just installed Karmann Ghia into our 71 bus, and the brake booster line is not attached. Where did you attach the booster line in the engine?
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