Hydroboost, Pros and cons

big2bird

big2bird

Charter Member, Founder Bird-Run, Cruise-In Bird-R
Joined
Mar 5, 2008
Messages
5,711
Location
Anaheim, Ca.
Well? Is it great,bad,so so, or just a band aid. Let her rip.
One things for sure, it adds alot of weight , hoses, and more things to go wrong.:smash:
 
IT works, and the feel of the pedal is a LOT more to my liking than any typical vac boosted car.....no matter whos.....

my booster was not defective, held vac, and always had the typical problems...

HB cured that....

:1st:
 
mrvette said:
IT works, and the feel of the pedal is a LOT more to my liking than any typical vac boosted car.....no matter whos.....

my booster was not defective, held vac, and always had the typical problems...

HB cured that....

:1st:
Click to expand...

So, it has a pedal feel that suits you.:stirpot:
 
big2bird said:
mrvette said:
IT works, and the feel of the pedal is a LOT more to my liking than any typical vac boosted car.....no matter whos.....

my booster was not defective, held vac, and always had the typical problems...

HB cured that....

:1st:
Click to expand...

So, it has a pedal feel that suits you.:stirpot:
Click to expand...

Well yeh, I"m tempted to take the m/cyl off the booster, and see how far the pedal will travel, and maybe lower it a bit....2" of travel is better than 4"....

not to mention in 2" you can really feel the car stopping HARD, not just slightly slowing....:2nd:
 
The biggest advantage is pedal feel. It makes for a very enjoyable cruise.

The biggest disadvantage would be it is way to touchy for the track.

My 74 is a cruiser not a racer so the added weight is not an issue to me but, the added comfort is.
 
The biggest drawback is NO pedal feel IMO. It feels severely over assisted, also when letting off the brake it takes a little for the pedal to come back up, there is a delay (yes properly bled, no T-ed return, separate return to remote reservoir). Modulation is next to impossible, you can not "feel" the brakes, you get no mechanical input back into the pedal like you do with the booster. I didn't like it at all.
 
Never had HB. I had vac boost on my small block vette. I have manual brakes on my BB.

Never have a problem with the manual. The pedal is always firm and no problem stopping the sucker from any speed. Once you get used to it, it's no problem.

So....why spend the money?:stirpot:
 
SmokinBBC said:
Never had HB. I had vac boost on my small block vette. I have manual brakes on my BB.

Never have a problem with the manual. The pedal is always firm and no problem stopping the sucker from any speed. Once you get used to it, it's no problem.

So....why spend the money?:stirpot:
Click to expand...
I agree! My manual brakes are just fine. No reason to screw with it.
 
Kid Vette said:
SmokinBBC said:
Never had HB. I had vac boost on my small block vette. I have manual brakes on my BB.

Never have a problem with the manual. The pedal is always firm and no problem stopping the sucker from any speed. Once you get used to it, it's no problem.

So....why spend the money?:stirpot:
Click to expand...
I agree! My manual brakes are just fine. No reason to screw with it.
Click to expand...

I have had the priviledge of driving alot of your cars, and I almost like the properly set up manuals the best. I keep the vacuum assist for Teri, as she also has arthritus.
 
big2bird said:
Kid Vette said:
SmokinBBC said:
Never had HB. I had vac boost on my small block vette. I have manual brakes on my BB.

Never have a problem with the manual. The pedal is always firm and no problem stopping the sucker from any speed. Once you get used to it, it's no problem.

So....why spend the money?:stirpot:
Click to expand...
I agree! My manual brakes are just fine. No reason to screw with it.
Click to expand...

I have had the priviledge of driving alot of your cars, and I almost like the properly set up manuals the best. I keep the vacuum assist for Teri, as she also has arthritus.
Click to expand...

OH man, I didn't know that, join the club....Dry Ca. climate and arthritis wouldn't seem to go together, people move there for relief, I left DC and came to Fl. because of it, worked great for a # of years...

:cry::goodnight:
 
HB is for for big trucks and diesel's. If you know how to work on a car you can fix you're brakes,if you can't work on you're car you put a Band-Aid on it and yell yes i fixed it :yahoo: My brakes will stop you on a dime with no effort and very little pedal travel.
I have driven with HB for 20 years and i am not that impressed that i would switch everything i own over to it.
For all the work,time,money and the added parts to go bad just to say my pedal does not travel as far :bonkers: SNAKE OIL.



CASE CLOSED
 
You all believe what you want to believe, I know what works....direct comparo A to B......


:beer:
 
I think HB makes the most sense when you have low vacuum (because of a cam, vacuum leak or whatever) and want brake boost, or have vacuum power brakes under these circumstances and don't want to convert to manual.

I may not be the best judge regarding the feel as I'm still working out the bugs, but I certainly liked the positive stopping power. Fuelie and Gene are correct in that it feels very positive. I also agree that I did not like the lack of touch.

Best overall brakes that I ever had was on my 71 Vega. The tires were tiny and bald. It had very limited traction and I drove it year round, even in deep snow. I always felt that I was in complete control of those brakes and yes they were manual.

There is also the negative of increased complexity, as Bird said.

From the reaction on my other post, HB does seem to be very polarizing.
 
My motor only carries 7"HG at idle. And i still have better brakes than any HB that i have driven in the last 20 years, and i drive HB everyday.
HB is just a Band-Aid if you cannot fix you're vac brakes or bleed the brakes right.

To be honest i think the HB is to mushy and has to much pedal travel
CASE CLOSED
 
kwplot34 said:
My motor only carries 7"HG at idle. And i still have better brakes than any HB that i have driven in the last 20 years, and i drive HB everyday.
HB is just a Band-Aid if you cannot fix you're vac brakes or bleed the brakes right.

To be honest i think the HB is to mushy and has to much pedal travel
CASE CLOSED
Click to expand...

MOST of the trucks out there have disc/drums and then can vary all over the joint in designs....tolerances, parts quality, whatever....

so to say it's squishy on another vehicle is fine with me....all I know is that it has given me a 4? year run with MY '72 vette where all the rest of the bullshit was covered 99 times from fucking SUNDAY, and finally ditching that damn booster without disconnecting a damn thing, cured the problems....

I mail ordered a stockish diameter aluminum m/cyl over the net took the typical time to get here, I did have a truck m/cyl on there....and it was super touchy, but the truck master was a impromvent over the stock shit, but not good enough....bee lee meee I went some year or more about that HB....and finally convinced, I put it on...and they are correct...for a SHARK they are the crown for brakes....

all the rest of the repairs are the band aids.....the O ring pistons changeover did very little to improve pedal feel, but cured the leaking problems, eliminating the brake pressure switch did little also... putting on the truck m/cyl helped, but no cure....

like I say, I could not find a actual defect in the vac booster, it held vac just fine....

tore it apart to find out WTF, found nothing but a spring between the input and output....I think that's a design fault...maybe a necessary one, I really don't give a shit....it's a fucking FAULT.....

:p
 
kwplot34 said:
My motor only carries 7"HG at idle. And i still have better brakes than any HB that i have driven in the last 20 years, and i drive HB everyday.
HB is just a Band-Aid if you cannot fix you're vac brakes or bleed the brakes right.

To be honest i think the HB is to mushy and has to much pedal travel
CASE CLOSED
Click to expand...

I agree:

:stirpot:All 3 of my C-3's have manual brakes and they will stay that way. HB is for men with girly legs.:stirpot: BTW..my parking brakes work correctly too....:1st:
 
You know it's funny that you mention that,my parking brake will hold my car on a hill just fine also :1st:
 
I haven't driven mine much since I rebuilt the system with HB but then starting the body work. I will say though that I do like how the brakes are now. A gorgeous pedal feel, like any new car you drive and it pulls up nice and smart with very little pedal input - swivel my foot from the gas pedal and use my big toe on the brake pedal!

Ummm... my park brake works well too :confused:
 
I'm thinking about HB for my 70 BB for two reasons: (1) I plan to use a stud girdle and the valve cover will probably hit the Vacuum cannister with the stock system (2) I'm 67 and I'm concerned that years from now I won't have enough leg strength for the manual brakes. I have manual brakes in my 68.

Questions:
(1) Have people had experience with the VB&P HB sold in their catalong? Is there another vendor?

(2) Is there a way of reducing it's sensitivity? Corvette M/C's have either 1 inch bores or 1 1/8 inch bores depending upon whether the car is Manual (MB) or Power (PB). I think PB M/C's have 1 1/8 inch bores. Would running a MB MC (1 inch bore) reduce sensitivity. Also, the brake petal arm inside the car has to locating holes for the shaft to the MC. PB's user the lower hole, would using the upper hole reduce sensitivity?

(3) Weight? the opening post big2bird cited weight as an issue. I wouldn't think there that much heavier than the stock can. Anyhow, I plan on using an aluminum MC made by Stainless Steel Brake Corporation. Anyone have any experience with this unit?

Thannks
 
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