Had a super stiff brake pedal on the BOSS. Like, had a few close calls on the interstate because I'd get vacuum assist for like half the pedal and then I'd have to apply my entire body weight to the pedal to get it to work. Pretty classic symptom of brake booster failure, though it evaded me for the longest time because it didn't have ANY other symptoms - no error codes from running lean, no noticeable fuel consumption issues. Just a rock hard brake pedal.

So Wednesday I replaced the booster. I've done brake pads and replaced the soft rubber lines before, but nothing on that scale.

The work honestly wasn't that hard, save for me not accounting for draining the brake and clutch fluid reservoirs, once I figured out what was what. I did learn some things that would have made this way easier, and I did manage to bruise the crap out of my armpit from the way I had to sit.

Anyway, I got the whole mess pulled apart and put back together, and turn on the engine. I'm greeted with a vacuum assist that works [good], and a booster that's hissing into the cabin [bad]. I've tested with a little bit of "rowdy but not crazy" driving and can confidently say it's safer than the

Fuck.

Genuine Motorcraft part, specialty (the booster on the BOSS and GT500 was larger than the one on the stock GT and V6, though it's a direct swap upgrade for the latter 2) ordered from an online parts house, and none of the parts houses in town have one. Ford wants double what everyone online is asking and they still have to ship it in.

I will give American Muscle credit because they set me up for an advance replacement, but then I'll take it away because that replacement part is set to ship August 28 (WTF). (I found one being advertised by a parts house through Amazon, and it's set to arrive Monday.) You can bet I'm going to be calling them about that.

This next time I'm doing what I should have from the start and removing my driver's seat so I can lay on the floor to disconnect the unit on the inside. (Conveniently this will allow me to vacuum some spots that have been bugging me, as a side mission.)

Yeah, been there.

My misadventure ended earlier than yours did. I bought a GM A-body disc brake conversion kit from Stainless Steel Brakes.

Unboxed it all. Tried fitting most of it together...

The parts in the kit didn't fit the other parts in the kit. Yeah, no. SSB got all of their shiny new garbage returned to them.

I was able to get everything I needed at the junkyard. Some idiot sold them a '67 Chevelle. The junkyard wouldn't let me buy the whole car.

Yeah, I don't think I'd have been as pissed if I hadn't had to crack my last 1L can of Pentosin Super DOT 4. This time I'm going to be a lot smarter on how it comes out and goes back in so hopefully this time it won't be quite as much of a shit show.

Just redid the whole suspension up front on the F150, bought all Moog parts for the ball joints, upper control arms/ball joints, 4 tire rod ends and figured what the heck it's got 190K, new pitman and idler arms. Oh yeah Brake pads all around because when you are in there, no reason to not do it.

All the parts seem good, apparently the steering wheel moved just a bit becuase it's off center now, so that's a redo, other than that, no surprises. Quality stuff.

2 defective starters in my Midget.
First did nothing out of the box, second was a slow cranker until it gave up & puked quite a bit of smoke from it.
Orielly reman & Autozone new, respectively.

During the last ten years in dealership parts departments I saw an increase in the amount of new out of the box or soon after installation failures.

These were parts sourced through the automaker’s parts distribution system so counterfeit items should not be an issue.

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
During the last ten years in dealership parts departments I saw an increase in the amount of new out of the box or soon after installation failures.

These were parts sourced through the automaker’s parts distribution system so counterfeit items should not be an issue.

That tracks.

So I talked to AmericanMuscle about the whole "ships in August" issue. As it turns out, per the CS rep they drop ship that from a third party vendor (he said it was a primarily MOPAR dealer) so the inventory numbers got screwy because they [TPV] apparently aren't as studious when it comes to their inventory numbers as they should be. I was able to get the replacement orders through AM canceled, and the exchange converted back to a refund.

I've got the replacement replacement booster sitting in the foyer, and it should be going on tomorrow. That's good.

Unfortunately, on an unrelated note my Hornady swage die took a fat shit on me, and because I told Hornady there wasn't red loctite on the grub screw holding the swage head in like the guy said there was supposed to be now they want the whole die. I got brass I can still use, but I have a whole 5 gallon bucket of brass that still needs swaged, and there's no way I'm going to go back to using my RCBS bench swage.

vulrath,

The inventory problems with the third party vendor is not surprising. I hear from my friends still in the business whether or not a dealership or independent parts store they can’t get help let alone competent help.

They must be getting desperate, I still get “invited” to get back in the business. Fat chance.

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
vulrath,

The inventory problems with the third party vendor is not surprising. I hear from my friends still in the business whether or not a dealership or independent parts store they can’t get help let alone competent help.

They must be getting desperate, I still get “invited” to get back in the business. Fat chance.

That's no lie. Rare to find a parts man that know s his stuff without needing the computer to tell him what to look for.

My dad was in dealership service/parts for 35 years.

quote:

My dad was in dealership service/parts for 35 years

My sentence was forty seven in GM and part time Harley Davidson for twenty three years.

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:

quote:

My dad was in dealership service/parts for 35 years

My sentence was forty seven in GM and part time Harley Davidson for twenty three years.

My dad started at Datsun/Nissan, was at Saturn from the start, on to Chevrolet, Acura, Honda, Nissan, Chevrolet.
Then got out & went to the O&G business.