Brake time. Hydroboost too??

Charles Moore

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The bus has been pulling to the right when braking lately. I figure the caliper is sticking, so I'm going to replace the front calipers. Are there any obvious upgrades? Otherwise I'll probably get some Napa ones .

While I'm at it, I figured its time to at least look into the hydroboost upgrade. It does not seem too difficult from what I've read.
Is there a particular year and model I should look at for the hydroboost?

Is this one going to work?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/333374304580

Thanks all!
 

The_Josh_Bear

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One tip @chillman88 told me was to make sure your calipers aren't sticking due to the coating/paint some of them have. His were dragging for that reason, made the pins fit too tight. I knocked off all the coating left on mine and it did get better.

As for calipers there aren't "performance grade" or whatever, but maybe some are better than others for longevity. Rotors and pads will make a big difference though. Also NAPA has gone way downhill over the last decade... I dunno squat about hydroboost except that it's great!
 

u2slow

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I used the same year F450 hydroboost ('95 in my case). Made sure to get one with the intermediate pushrod. Moved the pedal pin about 3/4" higher, and notched the master cylinder holes to bolt up. No other mods to the brake system.

Not sure about the fit of the 99+ style, or how the disc/disc master plays with drums... or if the disc/drum master swaps over.
 

Philip1

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Many reman hydroboost systems do not come with the output shaft. There is a company on eBay that sells replacement ones but there are 2 types, big bore and small bore. I don't remember where the year break is for them though
 

chillman88

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Is this one going to work?

It's certainly not going to be a direct fit, but can be made to work. You need to locate the parts from an F450 from 198?-1997. You "can" reuse your existing master cylinder, but you'll have to oval the mounting holes to make it work.

Pin on the brake pedal "should" be moved up 3/4" but will function without relocation. A better fix would be a hydroboost pedal from the same year truck as yours.
 

Thewespaul

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The bolt in hydro boost unit (97 and below) is now discontinued and no longer available new. You can find a junkyard unit and have it rebuilt but the 99 and up units all use a different bolt pattern in the firewall and are metric threads instead of standard that the oem lines use. I’ve been working on getting a good supply on the older style rebuilt hb for a bolt on kit and was making good progress until the covid stuff came up. Right now it’s pretty tough to get parts for the conversion.
 

u2slow

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The Motorcraft part # was BRB37

I mocked it up without moving the pin 3/4" and it looked bad/binding. I'd just gone through replacing the worn-off clutch pivot pin with a bolt, so it was easy to apply the same method for replacing the brake pivot pin higher up.
 

franklin2

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The bus has been pulling to the right when braking lately. I figure the caliper is sticking, so I'm going to replace the front calipers. Are there any obvious upgrades? Otherwise I'll probably get some Napa ones .

While I'm at it, I figured its time to at least look into the hydroboost upgrade. It does not seem too difficult from what I've read.
Is there a particular year and model I should look at for the hydroboost?

Is this one going to work?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/333374304580

Thanks all!

I kept thinking through the past couple of years I needed to upgrade to a hydroboost,, my brakes were always lousy. But a year ago I redid the front brakes, new calipers, rotors and pads and new rubber brake lines. Huge difference. I then recently had to put new drums, wheel cylinders, hardware, and parking brake cables on the rear. Even more improvement. I now have very decent brakes. I am not in the market now for hydroboost.
 
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