'59 Plymouth Forum

About the same time the exhaust manifold on the drivers side of the convertible started leaking (cracked manifold) the engine started running rough at all speeds, and would be hard to start and kill whenever I gave it gas, I had devajue all over again and thought it had something to do with the electronic ignition and the modulator (same problem I had on the trip to New Orleans) so I called my friend Richard the Mopar Guru for some advice. He suggested I take one of the Modulators from one of the other cars and try that but to no avail. I changed the carburetor and that seemed to be some of the problem because now it started more easily and ran smoother at idle but would still kill whenever I gave it gas. One thing I noticed and mentioned to Richard was that whenever I pushed the brake pedal while at idle and not moving I could sense a slight change in the engine, it would not run as smoothly. He suggested the brake booster diaphragm was leaking air and might be the culprit. I had taken it off the 59 Desoto parts car and installed it without having it rebuilt (big mistake) after all it was 55 years old!!!!! I took the hoses off the intake manifold fitting blocked the fitting and WALA it started right up, ran smoothly and didn't kill when I gave it gas. There is and outfit in Ft. Lauderdale that rebuilds brake boosters so I will be taking a trip today to get that done. I used them to rebuild the booster in my 60 Desoto and 63 Galaxie. Hope this will help someone now or in the future.
Dick

They are actually very easy to rebuild. I did 2 of them myself.

If only parts were easy to get over here!

BUMMER, Drove all the way to Ft. Lauderdale yesterday to find out the guy only does Midland Boosters, he did the Midland booster for my Galaxie and I assumed he did all makes. He gave me the name of the ONLY company in California that has parts and rebuilds them. All of my cars have the Bendix Power Vac which is the oval metal canister. The Kelsey Hayes is the one that is the bellows type. When I got home I did a lot of research on the Internet and found rebuild kits on ebay for the Bendix and Kelsey Hayes at $265.00 ea. The company in California is Karps Power Brake Service in Upland, Calif. www.Karpspb.com and will rebuild it for $295.00 plus freight. I opted to ship the booster to him rather than possibly messing it up myself.
Matthew, which one did you rebuild the Bendix or Kelsey Hayes.
Dick.

Dick,
I have used Karp's with good success. The last four or five I've had done were by Booster Dewey at Power Brake Exchange in Portland. I use him because he will recondition any worn parts, also he will re-plate the cover and rear portion to the factory yellow zinc.

---John

Thanks John - Matthew this would be me on a rebuild it myself.
Dick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCsW-eKrw0

I did the Kelsey Hayes booster.

We had 2 broken boosters that I just started to pull apart and I made 1 good one.
Heard the other ones are more easy

Maybe I will try it next time.
Dick

Dick Koch wrote:Thanks John - Matthew this would be me on a rebuild it myself.
Dick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCsW-eKrw0

Dick, I am cracking up from watching that vid!! Where do you find this stuff?!?

Dan

Dan - Just lucky I guess!! I googled BENDIX BRAKE BOOSTERS and there it was. Only thing is I can relate to is the "STUFF" on his work bench.
Dick

Dick; Karps did mine A couple of years ago,found A few things wrong(past owner's mods.) was very pleased with the price,quality and turn around time.Mine was doing the same as yours,was making A hissing sound as well when I step on the brake,all is well now no complaints. Mark M

Thanks Mark - That's good to hear.
Dick.