mustang hydro-boost

[RICH MUISE]

I decided to go the route described in the above post for the pushrod. While I'm waiting for the pushrod to arrive, I've got the hydroboost painted and mounted temporarily so I can make up the lines to the ps pump, rack, and reservoir.
Thinking ahead a little to what I was going to need for the brake lines, I discovered the oem Mustang brake lines are metric...oh joy!!...another "how do I adapt this?" problem to figure out.
I don't know if the metric system uses the same style of fittings, inverted flare,an, etc...so I guess I need to find out what fitting it actually is so I can look for an adapter. I assume Dgasman found one..looking at his pic there seems to be a brass adapter screwed into the master cylinder brake line outlets. Gary/Gasman826 is using an older unit, so I'm guessing his was not metric to begin with.

[RICH MUISE]

I confirmed the ports are #10 and #12 with a bubble flare. After driving aroung the area's local shops and coming up empty, I did what I should have done in the first place...called Pure Choice Motorsports. They make both size adapters to convert to a standard 3/8-24 inverted flare. $27. for the pair including shipping.

[gasman826]

bubble flare one end of the line for master cylinder with inverted double flare on the other end.  I think the adopter route you're taking is the better choice.

[RICH MUISE]

And I had no way to do a bubble flare. One of my friends says the aftermarket metric brake lines are made with sae sized tubing, not metric. What he does is buy a premade line, cuts one metric end off and flares it for the 3/8-24 inverted flare fitting. Only problem with that is apparently our local source for those bubble type flared lines is no longer carrying them.

[RICH MUISE]

Dgasman...or anyone else with a Mustang hydroboost that would be comparable to my '01 unit.... how much stroke is there on the pushrod from fully released to pushed in hard?
I haven't had much time at all to work on the car in the past few weeks. The adjustable pushrod unit I bought isn't going to be much help at all due to the short space to work with. LOL...it's almost as if somebody had sat down and tried to figure out how to design that unit so I couldn't use it. Almost every component is too long or too short or a thread I can't find local mating parts for.
The Hydroboost housing for the pushrod actually extends in past the firewall about 3 inches leaving only about another 3 inches to make the adaptation to the brake pedal. I sure have a hard time with this simple stuff not having machine shop access...frustrating....I'm worried if I weld on a connector nut it is going to interfere with the pushrod being able to be pushed in enough.

[RICH MUISE]

I got answers to,  or figured out all the questions I had asked about above. The hydroboost is in, the pushrod is done after a few trial adjustments. There is almost too short of distance to work with to make the pushrod adjustable..at least the way I made the rod. Had I to do it over again, I'd probably have a 1/2" steel spacer plate plasma cut. Putting that between the firewall and the boost unit would add enough length to the pushrod to make it simper to make.

[RICH MUISE]

Gary/Gasman...I finally got the lines run from the hydroboost , including the ones to the rack. Those banjo fittings worked quite well. With the cavalier rack, and the banjos installed, the line  closest to the frame has to be installed first. If you do the engine side one first, there's no room for a wrench for the second one.The pic shows the feed and return lines heading down to the banjos, which you can't see in the pic, but it's a straight unobstructed shot.

[gasman826]

Super!!  I won't change mine but would go banjo next time.  I have a fuel rail to firewall clearance issue that banjo fittings might cure.

[RICH MUISE]

Found out some interesting stuff on these Mustang boosters. Talked at length to a '56 owner who just installed a 4.6dohc and used a Mustang booster as well. However..the Mustang he pulled his from was newer than my '02 donor car (he told me the year, can't remember), and the 3 hydraulic lines are on the bottom side of the booster rather than the top. I asked if he had rotated the booster, he said no, that was the oem position. So, if anyone is thinking about a hydroboost, do a little research and you can find one like his. Makes for a cleaner lookimg installation.
By the way, he said the performance of the system with the hydroboost was "phenominal".

[gasman826]

1974 Bendix version mounted up side down so the lines are on the bottom.  Years ago, I read a magazine article that mentioned up side down installation.  Mines been that way for several years with no ill effects.  Super brake assist with plenty of valve cover clearance.

[RICH MUISE]

I couldn't do that with mine because the compressed air cannister is oem top right, so rotating the boost 180* put the cannister into the valve cover. ...edit: correction, it was the distribution block on mine that would have hit the valve cover if I tried to rotate the boost. I'm noticing that air cannister is on different locations with different years as well. I've seen the Mustangs with that cannister top right and top left. Anyway, as I mentioned, there are boost units with the oem fittings already on the bottom side as I mentioned. This is a pic of a '55 note the arrow pointing to the oem banjo fittings. As clean as the install was on this car, I was surprised to see that clutter of fittings and adapters and elbows that could have been eliminated with the metric to an6 fittings from Pure Choice Motorsports. Sorry for the poor pic..too much glare.

[ROKuberski]

As some of you know, I've had zero luck getting a vacuum boost unit to work properly in my car.  I've now got power steering so I am also considering using the Mustang Hydro Boost unit to give me power brakes. 

Since my knowledge about this subject is slightly above zero, I want to make sure that I don't head down another troubled path. 

I looked at the Rockauto site for prices and information about the boost unit.  I found that starting in 2005 Ford went back to a vacuum boost unit in the Mustangs.  I even looked at my 2013 Explorer and it is also a vacuum unit.  Anyway, a new hydro boost unit is $166 from Rockauto.  In their pictures, it appears that it has an angled bracket so that it would look like Rich Muise's picture below. 

Below, Rich notes that there are three hydraulic lines.  I thought that there were just two.  Supply line from the power steering pump, then a line from the boost unit to the power steering gear box.  Is the third line a separate return line from the boost unit back to the power steering pump?

There is also an additional block that the brake lines go to before heading to the, in my case, calipers/wheel cylinders.  The newer vehicles are all disk/disk and I am disk/drum.  Does that make a difference (meaning, can I use the same part that was on the disk/disk car?)

Helpful hints much appreciated,

Rich

[canadian_ranchero]

the 3rd line is a return line like you said.i put in a disc/drum porpotioning valve,hooked to the disc/disc master cylinder and a 10 lbs residual check valve in the rear line[after the porpotioning valve] for the drum brakes

[ROKuberski]

Thanks for the information.

I'm wondering if there is any reason that I could not use the master cylinder that I have now.  It's designed for a disk/drum car and has the residual pressure valve built in for the rear brakes.  I may have to modify the mount so that the master sits level.  What do you think?

Rich

[canadian_ranchero]

you would need to modify the master cylinder/mount to fit.you would also need to make sure the rod pushing on the master cylinder piston is in the correct place