NOS Booster, use or rebuild?

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Howard1784

Howard1784

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Recently, sent out and received a rebuilt booster by masterpowerbrakes in lynwood, Washington. I since acquired an NOS Booster from the shelf. While my original (Midland) was being worked on I asked about the NOS one. He immediately said it would have to be rebuilt as they do this all the time with NOS off the shelf boosters all the time.

I like the original cadium plating with the NOS and I stripped down my original.

My question is, would you bolt on the NOS and see what happens or hold off; send it out for a rebuild
 
Howard1784 said:
My question is, would you bolt on the NOS and see what happens or hold off; send it out for a rebuild
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Just apply vacuume to the vacuum port. Draw up to 15 inches and let it sit. If it holds that's a good sign.

As for the other parts inside I suspect grease would be dried up, rubber might be dried out etc. worst case is you have to unbolt it and send it out.
 
Best not to take a chance on brakes.. Diaphrams have surely dried out, and will crack in very short order.. If wanting to reuse just request the "SHELL" be left untouched and a rebuild only kit installed.
 
I had my original booster rebuilt by a company out in VA White Post Restorations – Fine Automobile Restorations & Brake Cylinder Solutions

They replated it and it came back looking great!

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Testing a booster to see if it holds vacuum is only part of the testing. All boosters
have some type of modulating valve. The MV 'feels' the pedal pressure & adjusts the output pressure accordingly.
 
I ended up sending it out to be rebuilt by master power brakes. Upon its return, I layed a thin coat of fluid film on the brackets, booster body etc to keep the plating from rusting. There was really no pitting at all with only very very small pinhead sized rust spots. I do hope the plating lasts as it's not a daily and wont see the elements. Also, I added 8 plastic washers to the metal to metal mounting points.
I bought this one recently from a member here, NOS Eddy from a 2 year old ad. The same booster kit was a few hundred dollars difference from a seller on Marketplace. The guy at MPB said Midland cores are hard to find. They have/had a restored one on their site, but with significant pitting. Great guy to deal with though!

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Howard1784 said:
I ended up sending it out to be rebuilt by master power brakes. Upon its return, I layed a thin coat of fluid film on the brackets, booster body etc to keep the plating from rusting. There was really no pitting at all with only very very small pinhead sized rust spots. I do hope the plating lasts as it's not a daily and wont see the elements. Also, I added 8 plastic washers to the metal to metal mounting points.
I bought this one recently from a member here, NOS Eddy from a 2 year old ad. The same booster kit was a few hundred dollars difference from a seller on Marketplace. The guy at MPB said Midland cores are hard to find. They have/had a restored one on their site, but with significant pitting. Great guy to deal with though!

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I’m thinking about switching to that style master. Which bore is that?

Have you got it all installed and working now? Having an issue getting my brakes to bite hard.
 
I have run many 50 year old boosters that are nos with no problem. The original one on my 76 440 truck still works like new even with 80,000 miles on it. The rubber back then was leaps and bounds over what is being built today quality wise. Back then they used natural rubber from trees not synthetic made with chemicals. Same for tires. I have 50 year old tires in better shape than new ones. Did you know new tires come with expiration dates? Tire shops won't even mount a five year old tire.
 
That style booster is expensive rebuilt but not terrible, I bought one that was rebuilt by I believe the same place, top notch. I did this because the used one I put on the car was not working. I didn’t notice because I went from 4 wheel manual drums to power disc/drum and even with the non functional booster I was light years shorter stopping distance compared to the worn out stuff I replaced.

And for clarity, it’s fairly low risk to try an unknown booster on a car. As long as the pushrod still moves in the booster the worst case is you don’t have boost from the booster… it’s not a total brake failure situation. I agree you want to fix it ASAP, but it’s not like it’s going to cause you to drive off a cliff, that’s caused by rapid loss of brake fluid.
 
I have an NOS one here for my truck, it's going from the box it's in to my truck, worse case I'm gonna have to pull it later and send it in.
 
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