Hi everyone!

I am not sure if you will remember, but a while back I wrote to the forum telling you guys about my 68 not being aggressive enough, and then a little while later I wrote again telling you guys about the vacuum being low on the car... well I am writing again LOL

Since I last posted, I brought the car to 3 separate mechanics. The first was about $60/hour just to tell me there is a leak somewhere and that it can cost just about anything to try to locate the problem. Gee, thanks. The second guy told me that there is NO leak... something is wrong and he charged me $100.00 to put a vacuum guage to the car and tell me that he does not know how much it will be to fix it, but a good starting point would be that he charges $800 - $1K just to take the motor out of the car so he can locate the problem. He suggested somewhere within a few grand as he put it. Again, Gee thanks.... The third guy (a friend of a friend - my FIRST mistake) charged $50.00 to tell me that the carb needs to be rebuilt. OK...OK... enough already - Gee thanks.
Finally, through SHEER luck, I came into contact with someone who knew the whereabouts of a guy that I grew up with that was an decent mechanic back then - he used to do a lot of work for the guys in the neighborhood with all kinds of muscle cars. I got in touch with him, and I just came back from his house, where he looked at the car. In literally 5 minutes, he found the vacuum problem - it seems that there is a hole on the master cyl that looks as if a vac hose should be going to it or something - but can't figure what else the hole is for. A ton of air was being sucked into it. I have a 68/400 Goat - no hideaways. Could the person I bought the car from just replaced the master cylinder with parts from a car that had hideaways? PS my car went from 10 vacuum to 25 vac and 18 vac when car idles. My secondaries now open, I have brakes http://forums.performanceyears.com/g...icon_smile.gif , and car has some guts now.

Here is a link to the pictures :
The last pic shows the hole plugged up with a screw and some hose the best.... I DONT mean the plastic fitting in the booster where the hose goes from the manifold....

http://www.gto-forum.com/67wagonoct9/DSC01083.jpg
http://www.gto-forum.com/67wagonoct9/DSC01084.jpg
http://www.gto-forum.com/67wagonoct9/DSC01085.jpg

If you look at the pics, you will see a piece of vac hose and 2 screws plugging up the hole. That is where the problem was. Can anyone identify what that hole is?

Thanks!
Amy
(68 GOAT)

Hi everyone!

I am not sure if you will remember, but a while back I wrote to the forum telling you guys about my 68 not being aggressive enough, and then a little while later I wrote again telling you guys about the vacuum being low on the car... well I am writing again LOL

Since I last posted, I brought the car to 3 separate mechanics. The first was about $60/hour just to tell me there is a leak somewhere and that it can cost just about anything to try to locate the problem. Gee, thanks. The second guy told me that there is NO leak... something is wrong and he charged me $100.00 to put a vacuum guage to the car and tell me that he does not know how much it will be to fix it, but a good starting point would be that he charges $800 - $1K just to take the motor out of the car so he can locate the problem. He suggested somewhere within a few grand as he put it. Again, Gee thanks.... The third guy (a friend of a friend - my FIRST mistake) charged $50.00 to tell me that the carb needs to be rebuilt. OK...OK... enough already - Gee thanks.
Finally, through SHEER luck, I came into contact with someone who knew the whereabouts of a guy that I grew up with that was an decent mechanic back then - he used to do a lot of work for the guys in the neighborhood with all kinds of muscle cars. I got in touch with him, and I just came back from his house, where he looked at the car. In literally 5 minutes, he found the vacuum problem - it seems that there is a hole on the master cyl that looks as if a vac hose should be going to it or something - but can't figure what else the hole is for. A ton of air was being sucked into it. I have a 68/400 Goat - no hideaways. Could the person I bought the car from just replaced the master cylinder with parts from a car that had hideaways? PS my car went from 10 vacuum to 25 vac and 18 vac when car idles. My secondaries now open, I have brakes http://forums.performanceyears.com/g...icon_smile.gif , and car has some guts now.

Here is a link to the pictures :
The last pic shows the hole plugged up with a screw and some hose the best.... I DONT mean the plastic fitting in the booster where the hose goes from the manifold....

http://www.gto-forum.com/67wagonoct9/DSC01083.jpg
http://www.gto-forum.com/67wagonoct9/DSC01084.jpg
http://www.gto-forum.com/67wagonoct9/DSC01085.jpg

If you look at the pics, you will see a piece of vac hose and 2 screws plugging up the hole. That is where the problem was. Can anyone identify what that hole is?

Thanks!
Amy
(68 GOAT)

First, I would have thought that any vacuum take offs for transmissions, PB, switches, headlights, etc would come off the manifold or carb...not the booster..it would rob vacuum to the brakes...the last thing anyone would want. That looks as if the jole was in the master and not the booster ...there shouldn't be vacuum there as far as I know. something else may be amiss.

Last, an older mechanic once offered me two sure fire ways to find a vacuum leak.

1) take a can of shaving cream and spray it around the suspect/usual areas for leaks...if there is a leak the foam will be sucked in and it will be visible. of course, this could be messy so I would think a done motor wouldbe a poor candidate for such testing proceedures.
2) take a can of starting fluid and aim it at the suspected/usual places for leaks...the motor will race as the fluid is sucked in through the vacuum. I have tried this once, and it worked...of course one must be careful and not start a fire http://forums.performanceyears.com/g...on_biggrin.gif.

Good luck,, I for one would also like to know what that hole is for and why there is vacuum there.

I would guess that the hole in question is a vent hole or drain hole where any fluid that might get past the master cylinder pistons would drain out so the pistons wouldn't lock up.
It's NOT supposed to have vacuum sucking into it whatever it is!!!!! You have a problem with your brake booster that is allowing vacuum to get sucked through the hole! I would get it fixed correctly IMMEDIATELY! The fix that was done by plugging the hole with a screw is NOT a correct fix and is VERY dangerous in my opinion because it might cause your master cylinder (brakes) to not work entirely!

I agree with these guys. There should not be any vacuum present in the area which you've plugged.
Your brake booster is bad and needs to be rebuilt or replaced.
It's really not a bad job, shouldn't take more than an hour to swap it out.

So then what you are saying, is that although this "hole" is on the tail of the master cylinder, that the problem lies with the booster? This whole thing is weird to me... I never saw this before...

The reason why it was rigged and not fixed properly is because I had hardly any brakes at that point. I needed to get the car home.

Amy

Amy, the diaphragm in the booster is leaking allowing vacuum to escape and in this case travel into the back of the master cylinder.
I would not drive the car until you can make the repairs.