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Power brake booster

Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2015 11:22 am
by Kanzan
Need to replace the power brake booster on my 1981 Rabbit pickup. Looks like a pretty straight forward job EXCEPT, how in the world do you remove the 2 botton bolts on the mounting bracket? Can hardley see them, much less get a wrench on them. Have done all the vacuum tests, and it is the booster that needs to be replaced. Thanks, Kanzan

Re: Power brake booster

Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2015 1:46 pm
by supersisu
I took the brake booster off once because the clutch cable bracket on top of the pedal box broke, not for any brake repair. There is a bracket that hold the booster to the firewall, I think I was able to get the booster off the bracket then take the bracket off the firewall (you won't have to do this). It was a struggle to get the nuts off, it took forever with a wrench turning 5 degrees at a time. Hope these photos help.

Re: Power brake booster

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2015 10:48 am
by air-cooled or diesel
simple solution, that bracket bolts thru firewall, and you have to jungle gym to get to the 3 nuts, not so simple, then when you remove from fire wall these 4 nuts of bracket come free, switch booster into same bracket. a 13mm socket, a swivel, a long extension, +perhaps another med ext, +a light. have fun, i just did one on monday.
on second look you in the pics have some different bracket there,

Re: Power brake booster

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 1:46 pm
by Kanzan
My 81 Rabbit diesel has a different bracket. I did find a good solution, bought a set of " flex head combo metric " wrenches. They have a box end rachet on one end. You can get at the bottom bolts from under neath. Would be the pits with a regular wrench as you can only get an 1/8 of a turn each time. Got the booster changed, now instead of poor brakes, I have NO brakes. Is the booster supposed to hold vaccum with the engine shut off? Mine looses all vaccum after about 3 minutes. I thought I read on here someplace, that the booster should hold vaccum for several hours after the engine is shut off. Kanzan