rpc45040

I have a few problems with my 1960 olds 88 and I think they might be all related. I am thinking master cylinder or booster issue but I wanted to get some feedback. I bought the car last summer. It is a good car but has been setting around a long time. The brakes were never good on the car, very weak and pulled hard to the driver side. I checked the master cylinder and it was bone dry so I filled it up. It doesnt seem to lose any fluid since and I never did find where all of the fluid went in the first place- no wet spot anywhere. The car ran and idled great. Later in the summer I noticed that occasionally after driving the car a 1/2 hour or so and getting it warmed up, it would start to idle irratically upon coming to a stop sign and want to stall. If I throw it in neutral and rev it, the idle ramped back up to a fast idle and then would be fine again until the next stop sign. If I did let it stall, it would start back up ok with a few cranks.

This winter, I took it upon myself to put the car on 4 jackstands, remove all drums and inspect. I found the hold down springs broke on the back shoe of the front passenger wheel and the drum very heavily gouged. I replaced shoes on all 4 wheels, had the front drums turned, lubricated all the adjusters, and replaced the broken springs. I have adjusted all 4 wheels to drag when turning the wheel by hand. Wheel cylinders all looked good with no leaks. The car does not pull anymore to the driver side but the brake pedal is extremely hard and it feels like it doesnt have the stopping power it should. Upon further investigation I noticed that the master cylinder hisses when pushing the brake pedal. Its not real loud and it may have been doing this for a long time but I never noticed it until I started investigating.

Do I have a vacuum problem? If so, is this the booster or is there a seal between the master cylinder and booster? If I put a vacuum guage on the booster how many inches is normal?

Im mechanically inclined but Im not a mechanic by any means.

Thanks for the help

rpc45040

One other thing I forgot to mention is if I stomp on the gas pedal the car falls flat on its face and dies. Normal acceleration is OK but hard acceleration dies. Are all these problems related or are they different problems. Seems like they started about the same time

chequenman

It sounds like the power booster diaphram is leaking and a kit needs to be installed. I also imagine that when you pull your Master Cylinder off you'll find the Power Booster partly full of Brake Fluid because your Master Cyl. could be leaking out the rear & being sucked back into the Power Booster, hence the absence of Brake Fluid with no visible leaks.

59-59-59

Another possible cause is a leaking air resevoir tank. Pull the vacuum hose off the air tank inside the fender and hook up an external vacuum gauge to it, pump it up, and see if it will hold and vacuum.

chequenman

Good point !!!