After the air conditioning work covered in Chilling? the power brake booster showed up and seemed to be in one piece. Which meant it was time to reinstall it, cross my fingers, and try the brakes.
So I reinstalled the booster, checked the brake plunger clearance with the new tool (it was within spec), and bolted the master cylinder to the booster. At this point I noticed that the brake lights were on. Fortunately this was solved by adjusting the brake light switch.
The next step was to add some gas – the tank was still empty from when I worked on the fuel sender. After a bit of cranking the 413 roared to life. It’s still running rough when cold, but I was able to try the brakes.
Success! The brakes had power boost! While this was a really good sign, it wasn’t definitive. It was time to drive the car and try the brakes. The test drive was almost anticlimactic – the brakes “just worked”. Plenty of boost, smooth operation, the brakes felt good, and the car stopped like it was supposed to. Unlike some of the older power brakes it isn’t over-boosted. There is good pedal travel and smooth progressive braking without grabbing.
And there was much rejoicing!
It felt like the brakes were dragging a bit, so some more adjustment might be needed.
Since the drive around the block went smoothly I decided to live dangerously and drove over to the gas station. This extended test drive was successful and provided more good news:
Speedometer
The speedometer is working with the new speedometer cable. I need to check the speed against GPS since the speedometer was grossly inaccurate before, so we need to see how close it is after being re-calibrated.
Gas Gauge
I added four gallons of gas initially, and then added ten more gallons at the gas station. Since the tank holds 23 gallons the gauge should show just over one-half. The gauge actually read just under one-half – close enough! The next step is to check it with a full tank. Everything considered it is better to have the gauge reading a little low than a little high – it makes it less likely you will run out of gas.
Exhaust
Most of the exhaust noise is gone. I still need to check a few things, but it is much better than it was.
Engine
As mentioned, the engine was still running rough when cold. After it warmed up it was a different story – the engine runs smoothly, idles smoothly, accelerates nicely, and re-starts instantly. The poor performance when cold may be largely a fact of life for a carburated engine – I’ve been driving fuel injected cars for so long I’ve largely forgotten how the old cars ran.
Overall
Today was a good day. More work to do, but a breakthrough compared to the last test drive!
Next: turning things around with Steering Wheeling.