Quote:
Originally Posted by Steeveedee
There are solenoid-assist brake systems in some of the newer cars. Old tech, in a way, like and electric rack and pinion. If I had this much trouble, I'd go to a manual system. It's always disconcerting when the engine stalls. My wife was driving our Astrovan (long gone) when the fuel pump quit. She managed to coast off the freeway and off an offramp with no hydra-boost or power steering.
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I've had the engine stall in two different hydroboost trucks, once while halfway through turning into a driveway- lost power steering and brakes in a heavy C30 flatbed towing a trailer and really had to crank on the wheel and pedal to keep it out of the ditch beside the driveway. The other time was on the interstate in a crewcab dually pulling a trailer with a car on it and the truck starting having fuel issues. It didn't have a lockup torque converter so the engine would completely stop and the steering and brakes were totally unassisted even though the truck was still going 65-70 mph.
Quote:
Originally Posted by forestb
I have a bad knee. Would switching back to manual breaks require more force than hydroboost breaks?
Also when I had my truck painted and my firewall shaved I had a captain fab bracket installed and I have no idea what things look like underneath it and what was done with my original bolt holes.
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The pedal effort/force depends on the total mechanical advantage (hydraulic and pedal ratio combined) your foot has on brake pads, and how much bite the pads have. You can use a smaller bore master cylinder for more pressure in the system and calipers with more bore area so the pressure the master cylinder makes is multiplied more.
The one "drawback" to a low pedal effort manual system is that making the master cylinder smaller bore, or increasing the caliper's bore area (or both) will mean that you have to push the pedal farther since the master cylinder's volume is pushing less fluid for a given amount of travel. Brake fluid isn't compressible so it's not like the pedal will go to the floor before it makes pressure, but it's something to consider if you're trying to make a really low effort pedal.