bhappy Quote:
I'm not quite ready to abandon my BTV replacement as I still have the fear of sudden brake failure. Mostly because of Craigs statement about going through 4 different rebuilt BTV failures. One question I have is did these BTVs originally fail with the same frequency as they seemingly do now?
Just to clarify my experience with rebuilt BTV failures:
1) Came with my 55 Pat when I bought it. In traffic, the pedal slowly went to the floor until bottomed, then no brakes.
2) Came from a professional rebuilder in CA; installed professionally. Failed slowly going to the floor.
3) Came from Whitepost Restorations after rebuild including sleeving the vacuum can and MC. It failed completely and with no notice in slow traffic.
4) Rebuilt by a professional restorer in Las Vegas. Failed same as 1), but then partially came back after pumping vigoriously. Replaced it with custom MPB and releveraged pedal.
Each failure was about 1 year apart and somewhere between 5,000 - 10,000 miles of daily driver and long distance trips.
During this time, I talked to many 55-56 Packard owners about my problems with the BTV. At least 6 stated that they had also experienced a sudden BTV failure.
So, as to the question of how frequently does the BTV fail? See above. How many failures does it take to convince you that you are risking your life and limb everytime you step on the brake?
If your 55-56 Packard is a trailer queen or rarely driven, you may be OK. If you actually drive it a lot like I do, then you'd better replace the BTV with something else.
Craig
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