Brake Booster Question

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Joined
Sep 5, 2005
Threads
33
Messages
73
Location
Dallas, TX
First things first thanks to everyone for all the great info in this board. Owned my FJ60 for about a year and spent the entire time lurking and reading all of the advice. Now to the problem: I've been having brake issues with my FJ60 lately. The travel in the brake pedal has been fluctuating At some times I press the brake and everything feels normal...other times I press the brake and the pedal just keeps travelling down until I finally get some stopping power. I'm sure it's not more than a few inches of extra travel but it causes a little "panic" when your coming up on a sudden red light. My cruiser went from a weekend car to a DD about two weeks ago so I definitely want to make sure I can stop in Dallas traffic.

I took my car into one of the recommended mechanics on this board and was told the diaphragm in the brake booster had a hole in it. Didn't sound like a bid deal but the quote is for $500 to have it sent away, competely rebuilt and then reinstalled. I just have no reference point to know if this is a decent deal, complete ripoff or I should be heading elsewhere. I'm stuck right now because my wife is out of town and I'm borrowing her car...if I'm going to fix this it needs to be in the next couple of days. Not a ton of time to make the decision.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Kevin
 
Do a search on "Booster Dewey" in Oregon. I think the official name of his business is "Power Brake of Oregon". Dan can source you the rebuild kit, and Dewey can rebuild for $100 or so. Call Dewey first as he may have the kit already. He did a great job for me on the tandem booster in my FJ40, after I sourced the Toyota kit from Cruiserdan.

BTW-This is an easy fix for you. The cheapest option will be to get a used booster from a Pick and Pull. If it were me, though, I'd get it rebuilt, and install a new brake master cylinder. Then everything works like new. If you do it yourself, you can do all of that for $500.

You do have to fix it, because the vacuum leak will cause the valves to burn at 5 and 6.

Good luck.
 
Pretty much any Toyota truck booster will work; you might need to flip it upside down to get the holes correct. The amount of boost is more of less the same. Get a cheap used one or price new mini truck/tundra boosters at NAPA. $500 sounds about right for a rebuild of what ya got. Used 60/62 booster is about $150ish.

Make sure you adj both the pedal rod and the booster rod correctly.

Disconnect and plug the vac line and port off the intake. You will not have powerd brakes but you can drive it forever that way with no damage to the valves and you will have one really big leg.
 
I would like to add another dimension to this. It could be your booster, but if it really had a ripped diaphragm, it should fail all the time. Also, opening up a booster (once it is out of the truck) and replacing the parts is not hard (at least not on a HJ60, maybe the FJ60 is different).

I had exactly the symptoms you were describing, and chased it forever, through a new booster, 2 new masters, new wheel cylinders, new calipers, new brake lines...and it ended up being loose wheel bearings. Just loose enough that the brake discs wobbled a tiny bit, enough to push the calipers apart to far sometimes. This caused the pedal to need much more travel. Easy fix, go in there and tighten them to spec.

You can test the booster. step on the brakes with the truck off, then start up the truck while pressing the brakes. If the booster is fine, the pedal will sink a little bit, but not far. If that happens, chances are your booster is fine.

hth
jan
 

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