It's that time again...another car question: brakes (1 Viewer)

[Tim Hoover]

It's a new month and there's yet another mildly annoying problem with my old '87 Mustang GT. At least this time I've been able to do some research and get it narrowed down, but still need a little help with the details. Anyway, here's the scoop:

On my aforementioned '87 Mustang GT, I'm getting very soft power brakes. There's plenty of good-looking fluid in the reservoir when I checked that. I did a little more searching and testing and found what appears to be a leak by the brake booster. There is fluid coming out of the seal where a little plastic doohicky connects the vacuum line to the booster itself. The doohicky itself (which I believe is a check valve, but I'm not entirely sure) does not fit snugly into the brake booster. My questions are: 1- What exactly is that piece? 2- Is the damn thing very expensive? 3- How in the world do I go about replacing it?

Mucho thanks in advance. I know I ask a lot of car questions on here, but this place is very helpful...

 

[Mort Corey]

JMO, but if you're not sure how something works (and it's something kind of important.....like brakes) it'd be best to take it to someone in the know. It could be as minor as air in the lines or a master (or wheel) cylinder beginning to give up the ghost.

Mort

 

[Chu Gai]

Is this the general area where the part is located?

 

[Tim Hoover]

Chu - yuppers...there's a vacuum line going to the power brake booster, and the grommet in the check valve has gone bad, or so I thought. I replaced the check valve and grommet today, but still no change.

I got to thinking...there shouldn't be any brake fluid coming out of the seal around the vacuum line, because there shouldn't be any fluid in there at all. Most likely I have a failure somewhere in the brake booster itself, so it's going to the mechanic next week.

 

[Eric Kahn]

If you have brake fluid coming out of the booster, you have a bad master cylinder and it needs to be replaced, which will also mean that the brake system has to be bled out after the new one is put on

if you have never worked on the brake system before, it would be best if you took it to a mechanic