Re: Easamatic Rebuild Sources

Posted by 55PackardGuy On 2013/8/18 23:51:40

PackardV8,

Thanks for posting that. I would say that rebuilding it as often as the article says, every 3-5 years, would require that the same person do the work every time it's rebuilt,--otherwise, relying on different rebuilders could be counter-productive, as it just increases the chances that someone will get it wrong.

The article emphasizes the condition of "blowing the seals" and hence "sucking" all the fluid out at once. In my experience, it doesn't seem that the seals were "blown" once and for all. The condition of "sucking" fluid seemed to be intermittent , with it's tell-tale sign of producing smoke out of the tailpipe from fluid being introduced into the intake manifold. That "catastrophic" condition was not a permanent state.

By fiddling around after experiencing this total break failure, I was able to "revive" the power brakes, temporarily:

Last winter, I put the car away after a break failure, which included smoking. Before I parked it, I drove it for a while with the vacuum disabled, in a "manual" mode. Except for requiring excessive pedal pressure, it stopped all right. Before I parked the car, I sprayed brake cleaner into the then nearly empty reservoir and into the manifold vacuum regulator.

The next spring, I re-engaged the vacuum, put in new fluid, and the unit worked quite well for a while, with some fluid loss but nothing catastrophic. I had power braking, and would need to top up the fluid once in a while. (I drove the car only from my house a couple of blocks to an industrial park late at night, doing my evening "rounds" on their streets like a '50 private eye. It was fun!) I probably used the brakes 15 or 20 times without incident, although the reservoir slowly depleted, and I could hear a "gurgling" that reminded me that some fluid was leaking into the vacuum section. Not enough to be drawn into the intake, however, and not producing smoke. As the fluid level went down, I would at times have to pump the brakes twice to stop fully (but the pumping worked in this case).

The next time I encountered the dreaded tailpipe smoke and total loss of brakes was actually in my driveway after I had "topped up" (probably overfilled) the reservoir. After I filled the reservoir, I gave the brakes a test push-- the pedal went to the floor, and smoke started coming out the tailpipe. The fluid level was depleted by about half after the smoking stopped. I let the car run through the whole process. (After that, the car went to the shop for removal of the MC prior to rebuild.)

I don't know if any of this information adds up to anything helpful, I'm just reporting my experiences. I HOPE the unit will be torn down, photographed, and rebuilt within the next couple of weeks, so I can give a decent report on the results. If the weather holds out, I will have time to test drive it and see what happens.