I got my car off the stands today and took it for an extremely short test drive. The one last issue I have is with the brake pedal feel. There is virtually no travel and in order to get the car to stop requires an extreme amount of effort pushing the pedal. I can hear a vacuum noise from under the driver side of the dash (while the engine is running) so I'm thinking the brake booster is toast. My car is an 83 z28 with disks in the rear. Will any 3rd gen booster work, or will I need one from a car with rear disks? Will a 4th gen booster work?

I'm also thinking I might have a stuck caliper, the brake light is on in the dash, and the car hasn't been driven in quite a while...like several months. Does it sound like I'm on the right track for fixing this...never really had to deal with this before. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

this is also caused by a lack of vacuum feeding the booster. Is the line hooked up? is the check valve good? can you verify that the booster is getting and holding vacuum?

 

Trace the lines from the vacuum source to the booster.
IIRC, a vacuum leak will cause a hard pedal, not positive on that.

For the brake light--
Check the fluid level.
Look to see if any brake lines // callipers etc. have any sign of leaks.

Basicaly, give 'er the once over.


Just a thought.

( edit )
What 86 says !!

 

Vacuum is hooked up and I know the system isn't leaking fluid. All is good, I gave the system a once over twice after I hooked up the rear brake lines and bled the system. I've bled it quite a few times and am thinking about doing it again. Haven't checked to see if the booster is holding vacuum, I don't think it is because I can hear a huge vacuum leak under the driver side dash that sounds like its about where the brake booster is. All my cruise control vacuum lines under the dash have been removed.

 

Maybe get some carb cleaner & spray around the line connections & listen for the tee-tale idle change?

 

I went to the wrecking yard today and got another booster, it helped a little but not 100%. When I had the car on stands I noticed the left front wheel didn't want to spin very well so I decided to check that out and I think I found part of the problem. The left front brake hose is bad, I can't even blow air thru it. So I ordered new hoses for the front and hope to have it fixed tomorrow.

 

Sounds like it may be a combination of things. I got a new booster from CarQuest when mine went bad with the same symptoms (extremely high effort to stop and a sound of an air leak under the dash).

 

After installing the booster from the wrecking yard, I no longer have the vacuum sound under the dash. I wasn't totally convinced that was the root of the problem so I figured I would gamble and spend $10 on a recycled part instead of $120 for a new part and not have enough $$$ left over to truely fix the car.

 

I got the brakes fixed. Once I replaced the hose on the left front, the car stops like it should and the test drive went great. I still have the brake light on in the dash so I'm going to bleed the system one more time and then check the parking brake lever and see if there is a switch there that's not working right.