yeahbuddy

Recently purchased this original front power disc brakes w/ booster from a user on here. Looks like during shipment the plastic behind the booster shattered into a bunch of pieces. Is this brake booster repairable or am I screwed here. This is what it looked like when I got it.

Said it came off a 69 cutlass and I will be putting it on a 68 Cutlass Supreme


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Fun71

My car is sporting a new booster that my wife bought for $99 online. Looks just like the original and works perfectly fine. Perhaps you could have that booster rebuilt (there are several places that rebuild them to show quality level) but it may cost more than an aftermarket replacement.

edit: I checked and they are now $109 with free shipping.

jaunty75

My thought, too. I replaced the booster in my '73 Custom Cruiser with a unit from Autozone. Fit right in and works fine.

They've got one for a '68 Cutlass, too. Only $82 if you give them your old core.

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...9_131640_7889_

yeahbuddy

My point is I paid almost $210 shipped for the complete brakes with booster and I was told it was complete and ready to go. I don't have the extra cash to burn so Im trying to figure out if I basically got screwed here. The booster was in the same box as the brake with no padding or anything. Trying to figure out how to handle this....

Oldsguy

The parts probably could have been packaged a little better but the seller may not have anticipated that the box would have been stacked any which way and/or dropped which is what it looks like may have happened. It is possible that the damage occurred during shipment is what I am trying to say.

yeahbuddy

I specifically bought this set because I dont have cash to burn and now it looks like thats exactly what is happening. I dont even know where to go from here....UPS is saying it was not insured and to make a damage claim they need to come inspect the box and packaging materials which will take up to 5 business days just to look at it.

jag1886

You didn't get screwed, you almost always have to refurbish old take off parts, that's part of the deal, just park them in the garage until you get the scratch up to have the booster rebuilt, you should rebuilt the M/C and the calipers, you don't want to trust a bunch of 45 year old parts.

yeahbuddy

This is where the problem is. I specifically made the post looking for a functional set of brakes w/ booster that would be plug and play. He told me everything is ready to go. I even have texts that say "every works perfectly. ready to plug and play" When I got it the booster was damaged and the rest of the parts dont look ready to go.

jensenracing77

I think you just need a new one of these. I think they can be ordered at the parts store.

Alex1972CutlassS

Yep on what jensenracing77 said. Better safe than sorry. I just replaced mine with a new one. Diaphragms and all the other guts involved....Did you use pay pal or ebay something like that? If so you should have automatic buyer protection. Did you contact the seller for a refund? If he refused to work with you I would like to know who you got it from for my own information.

Alex in Idaho USA

Lady72nRob71

Yes it is repairable, just have to find the part and figure out how to replace it.
Very bad packing job for sure - the booster also should have been separate from the heavy stuff.
Any shipped or stored booster needs to have the pushrod tie-wrapped on both ends to center it to prevent this type of damage from happening.

Boldsmobile

That's how it was packed?

dc2x4drvr

To late now, but I've always shipped boosters using a section of PVC pipe to protect the "back side"...

jag1886

You didn't mention what you paid for those parts. If the seller said they where ready to go, that unfortunately doesn't mean the same thing to everyone.

MDchanic

That is an astonishingly bad packing job, and I think that the outcome was not only predictable, but was all but assured.
Therefore I think that the decent thing for the seller (or packer) to do would be to pay whatever it costs for you to get the broken part. That being said, though it is the decent thing to do, I doubt you could force him to do it.

Honestly, my greater concern is that those rotors definitely do not look "plug and play."
They may work okay, after several thousand miles of dragging your brakes to burn off the rust, but really, they look like they need to be cut.
They look like they have sat outdoors on an immobile car for many years, and I don't see how anybody could say with any confidence that they would definitely work right out of the box.

You did see pictures of this stuff first, didn't you?

- Eric

yeahbuddy

Alright. A little more info on the deal. I needed to replace my front drums so I posted in the wanted section for working complete front disc brake conversion kit. Someone offered me a set for $200 and then this seller offered me a "complete set for $150 from Texas". I asked for pics and he texted me 3 pictures showing the complete booster w/ master cylinder and the two brakes w/ rotors. In the pics on my phone they looked oily but complete. He told me it was on a car 6 mo ago and would come with a brand new proportion valve. Started exchanging texts for shipping quotes and he told me $40 through Fastenal. Then said they couldnt do it and he will ship it UPS and to send $210 via PayPal and he will cover the rest of the shipping if needed. It arrived to a completely different address than what I gave him. No idea why or how but same city and zip code but the address off. Corrected it and this is how it looked when I opened the 2 boxes:

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The "brand new" proportion valve
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For some reason the single rotor in the single box was packed with tons of bubble wrap and brown paper. The box with the booster and other rotor has nothing but cardboard on the sides. He offered to pay $30 towards a $69 booster from rockauto (after the $20 core refund once it gets mailed in costing me who knows what). I ended up calling him and trying to work out a solution. He told me they were on a car 6 months ago and when asked why it wasnt bubble wrapped he said "because I dont work in a ****ing packing office". It got a little heated after that and he told me that "this is obviously about money so text me how much you want"

Am I in the wrong here? He did try to makeup for it from the start and offered to pay $30 towards the new booster but my whole problem is its not what was discussed and I just dont have the extra cash to blow. Thoughts guy? Truth be told I feel a bit ripped off. Not sure what to ask for to make this right as it would be too costly to ship it all back.

yeahbuddy

$150 + $60 shipping. He said plug and play complete ready to go was on a 69 Cutlass 6 months ago.

MDchanic

From what you describe, I agree that you were, to some extent, ripped off, in that it looks to me as though the parts were not honestly described. The crappy packing makes it look like as far as he was concerned, he was throwing the parts in the garbage.
Also, the "on a car six months ago" says nothing about function or the condition of the car they were on. Looks to me like they were on a car six months ago that had been sitting for years.


On the other hand, it's still not a bad deal for all of that stuff, shipped.

I suspect that the $30 refund he offered you would be enough to pay for the busted piece, and I'd recommend that you settle for that, get the whole affair running, and make peace with the fact that the seller's intentions (like his description of the parts) may have been less than squeaky clean.

Settle it, move forward, and forget it. You will only lose time, money, and sanity by trying to make it "perfect."

- Eric

steverw

Ok this guys packaging SUCKS!!! but all is not lost I think. Obviously these parts need cleaning. Get the part shown above for the booster. I would take the rotors off and clean and grease the bearings. Hopefully the bearings are good. The rotors don't look that bad to me, they appear fairly smooth with surface rust. A couple of miles driving will clean that off or you can have them turned pretty cheap. Id just drive it off myself. Pads don't look to bad. Again pads are cheap too, use those for a while then get new ones later. That's definitely not a new proportioning valve but maybe ok, clean it with brake cleaner and blow it out. They are used parts so just clean them as you would any used part and put it to use, hopefully the calipers are not locked up but easily rebuilt and parts are cheap. Actually I bought some rebuilt calipers same as those cheap. I think it was autozone or advanced auto, I want to say they were around 10 bucks each. Not sure on the booster but put some elbow grease into it and hopefully all will be ok. Im sorry this happened to you but the fix may not be too bad or expensive. I hope I don't get caught up buying something from the same guy!!!!!

Fun71

Yeah, several years ago I was going to rebuild my calipers, then I found out the rebuild kit was about the same price as remanufactured calipers - $16 each if I remember correctly.

delta254

To my defense I covered $24 of shipping cost and I gave him $40 refund..It may have been packaged better but I worked with what I had I dont sell much stuff and this why I have boaght plenty of stuff on here and 90% of time it does not look like it did in pictures.I traded a set of of 14" stock rally wheels with brand new BF goodwrench tires for theses brakes and I saw them working..Most of us understand there used parts and I did give him a $40 I dont think there is user on here that woud have game him any money back...I also just sold the engine and trany out of my car to a user from here and he is very happy with it.

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...tml#post659253