[Walrus3]

Note: This problem appears to be specific to the 164 because of the compound brake pedal linkage
and the fact that the brake booster is mounted direct to the firewall, so 140 experience will
be little or no help.

I am in the throes of trying to take the failing brake booster out of the Mroon 72 164E that Kent gave me. It is headed south with fairly ineffective braking and lots of whistling sounds when I step on the brake. I have done this job before but it has been at least 20 years, maybe longer. I remember it as tedious but nowhere near impossible. But now I am over 70 and stiffer and not as strong as I used to be. (Maybe not as smart also.)

There are 4 studs in the back of the brake booster that on the 164 go through a box in the firewall and through the pedal mounting box inside to hold them together. Once you get the clutch pedal and its pivot out of the way the left two nuts are fairly easy to get to, and the top one on the right is not too bad although pretty high on the firewall. But the pedal box and its compound linkage and also the steering column are very much in the way of the lower nut on the right side so I have not been able to snake an assembly of socket extensions in there. Do any of you folx remember a trick to this that I might have forgotten?

Also I have 2 used boosters on the shelf. Is there any quick way to tell if one of the two has a good diaphragm? Looks like it would need a master cylinder bolted to it to keep all the vacuum from leaking out....

 

[gdill2]

Nearly ten years back...

http://www.brickboard.com/RWD/index.htm?id=420598&show_all=1

All spare brake boosters have good diaphrams or you would have tossed them.

George Dill

 

[Walrus3]

Ahh, yes. Whatever goes around comes around. Somehow I also picked up a tick out there. There is an overhanging oak tree at the end of my driveway.
He was pretty big when I finally figured out what he was (after getting home from seeing MIB III last night - GREAT movie!)

WRONG!! They are rebuildable so I would NOT have trashed them. I should have marked them though. At least one of the spares I bought on ebay years ago.
I think I have found the tool to get the lower right hand nut off. I'll try it in an hour or so. It is a 3/8" drive 1/2" CROWFOOT wrench. This should work with one or more long extensions. Unfortunately to get the only one in town I had to buy a whole set of 10 at Sears.

 

[Phil Singher]

George, I have no experience with that particular nut on a 164, but I can tell you that crowfoot wrenches have saved my posterior quite a few times over the years. I don't need one often, but when I do, it works when nothing else will.

 

[Walrus3]

The crowfoot wrench DID work but was not your typical "duck soup". That is, I could not get 1/6 of a
turn with the crowfoot wrench. Almost, but not quite. Finally did get it off though.

I found that the two spares I have are NOT the same as 164 boosters - they are about 1½" smaller OD and have a female threaded hex to attach to the pedal where the 164 booster has a clevis. If it were not for that difference I could put one on and see if it works. I found an outfit that refurbs the ATE boosters - Booster Dewey does not! It is Power Brake Exchange in San José, CA. Friendly folks to talk to. I have the booster and MC packed up and will see if I can get them into the PO tomorrow. Meanwhile I may pull the booster and MC from the blue 69 164 which is awaiting engine and body work. This will entail changing the Mroon 164 over to DOT5, a good thing but tedious.

 

[Walrus3]

Well, it was almost a month but the booster and master cylinder came back yesterday looking GREAT!! Price was a bit lower than I expected but shipping pretty much made up the difference. Both items powder coated and look like new. I still have some rust removal to do on the inner fender before I put them back in. Planning to change this one to DOT5 silicone fluid also based on my past experience (over 25 years) with 122s and my other 164.
FWIW my priority mail shipping to them was $49.25 and took over 4 days. Their shipping to me was UPS at $18 and took 10 days. Must have been a lot of UPS rest stops along the way!

 

[gdill2]

Well, it was almost a month but the booster and master cylinder came back yesterday looking GREAT!! Price was a bit lower than I expected but shipping pretty much made up the difference. Both items powder coated and look like new. I still have some rust removal to do on the inner fender before I put them back in. Planning to change this one to DOT5 silicone fluid also based on my past experience (over 25 years) with 122s and my other 164.
FWIW my priority mail shipping to them was $49.25 and took over 4 days. Their shipping to me was UPS at $18 and took 10 days. Must have been a lot of UPS rest stops along the way!

Good show - we will wait eagerly for pics of the final install.

When I lived in Gooseneck, Texas, none of the delivery services could find me in their GPS systems.

George Dill

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...=any&safe=images&tbs=&as_filetype=&as_rights=

http://images.google.com/search?as_...=&biw=1536&bih=761&sei=xmr0T4_VCOHK2AXdsKjUBg

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=walru...ar=Bartlesville,+Washington,+Oklahoma&t=m&z=9

UPS driver can't see the forest for the trees...

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=36.73...5.941906&spn=0.000685,0.001549&num=1&t=h&z=20

 

[John2x240]

You have trees in Texas? I thought it was all prarie, desert, and a few ocean beaches. BTW, it looks like your end of Woodland Rd. needs some surface patching-up.

 

[Walrus3]

I'm in OKLAHOMA, not Texas (although I am a native-born Texan) and we have PLENTY trees. The number is wrong, though, should be 3313.
If you do a search on that my house is clearly visible with big white roof. Normally have 7 or 8 Volvos in the driveway and room for maybe a dozen more if carefully parked. Resolution may not be good enough to make them out under the trees.

 

[John2x240]

Uh oh ... I guess I didn't look at the house number and state. I just assumed that as George posted the link it was his location and I was just ragging him.

 

[Walrus3]

I finally got the wheels on the ground at about 8:45 this evening and took it for an 8 mile drive. Brakes seem pretty good, may still have a bit of entrained air in the DOT5 fluid but it stops OK and no whistling or singing while braking. I changed back to the standard '72 dash panel and found that the dash lights don't work and the temp is reading a little high. BIg tires seemed to drop about 0.4 miles in 7 miles on the odometer going by section line roads. I'll check that more accurately in the future. Oh - I also took the rear view mirror out and forgot to put it back in. Still got one defroster hose to hook up also. No apparent lasting effects from washing under the hood - it started right up. Need another fuel filter - faltered after about 4 seconds of second gear hard acceleration. Wonder how many it will take to wash the tank clean...... With the glass pack rear muffler the exhaust seems to resonate with a nice BLAT at about 1000 rpm. Softens up a lot above that.

BTW it was pretty hot here today.

 

[Walrus3]

I checked the cooling system out today. First thing I did was install a pressure gauge in the radiator (not the overflow tank) and it never showed more than 2 psi and didn't generate any gas in the system so the head gasket is OK. Then I checked the radiator with a thermometer and it stabilized at 195°. I took out the thermostat and found it was also marked 195, although it was not exactly the right type and was installed with a gasket. I put a 180° thermostat in it today but have not run the engine since. I believe I probably have a bad voltage compensator on the dash panel I just installed also - will check that when I pull it to check the dash light problem tomorrow.