The silver adapter replaces the accumulator and has a JIC fitting on it for a remote accumulator. It fits in place of the original like the gold one on the left.
Used a small block chevy valve spring to hold the adapter against the lock ring. The original was held in place by the gas pressure. An O-ring seals it.
Made dimensions the same as original.
The bigger silver accumulator is what I'm going to adapt to the hydroboost. It is 3 to 5 times larger in capacity than the stock size units on the left. Removed from a DC-10-40 when it was decommissioned.
We went on a BBQ tour, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma. The ribs we got in Missouri were the best.
Missouri mines state historic site. Missouri has a lead belt and this mine was turned into a museum with a huge collection of minerals from all over the world. There are hundreds of miles of tunnels now flooded. The Doe Run mine is in operation today in the area. Located by Park Hills on highway 32.
Beale street Memphis Tennessee
Martin King museum. The cars are like the original ones that were parked there.
These fittings adapt the metric oring ports on this booster to AN6 which is the same as common JIC hydraulic sizes.
Another view of the "two function" valve
Bendix uses a figure eight seal ring. It is not round and is almost square in cross section.
Body halves ready to go together. I found that the power pistons are different in depth where the master cylinder push rod seats. I made two out of 3/8 bolts to get one I liked.
Forecast 6 more inches of snow today. My back blade angle locking pin hole is wallowed out.
Welded on a ring to take some of the slop out.
Some boosters have relief valves. The top left one doesn't and is the 94 Astro unit. They look kind of like sight glasses from the out side. There is some clear hard stuff and a blue plastic ball stuck in the hex socket that adjusts it. Not supposed to be user adjustable haha. I think I read that they are set for 1,600 psi. In my case it was 9 turns in from the first thread when removed so that's where it will be reset.
Here is the valve and spring out of the hole. An O-ring seals it
This is the "two function valve" the yellow end lets pressure in the accumulator if the line pressure is higher than what's in the accumulator. The pin lets fluid out of the accumulator if hydraulic line pressure is lost and the pedal gets mashed far enough to push it in. That is the emergency back up.
The hat looking piece is what pushes the pin in.
Spool body plug held in with a spring clip and seals with an O-ring.
Power piston seal.
-----------------------------94 Astro ------------99 Astro ----------------Dodge
Input rod -------------------.595 -----------------.595-------------------- .545
Power piston ---------------1.56 -----------------1.56-------------------- 1.56
Lever ratio------------------- .62------------------ .62 -----------------------.73
Stock pedal ratio ---------dunno ----------------5.2:1------------------- 4.2:1
All of these had the bigger power piston. The Dodge unit had the smaller input rod for more gain and the 73% lever for more relative motion of the valve spool.
Got a hydroboost repair kit from Restoration Perfomance Center in Arizona. They had the best price.
These input rod seals have to stretch over the threaded rod and piston and not get torn up. They have to stretch a bunch... I made a two part tool with a sleeve and taper piece. The sleeve slides over the threads and end of the piston keeping the seal protected.
Sleeve and taper tool parts.
Got them on OK. Old seal on the sleeve.
The old seals tore stretching them to get them off.
We got a blizzard Christmas day.
This John Blue pump was made in the 50's for LPG or anhydrous ammonia transfer. It has a piston motor that operates off of the difference between tank pressure and atmospheric and drives an attached piston pump that moves gas from one tank to the other creating a pressure difference. The transfer is done by a separate liquid line between the tanks. Some gas is lost to the atmosphere from the motor end in normal operation. The motor valve shifter had broken and it took a while to figure out how it went back together and what the parts were supposed to look like. Originally they were used to transfer anhydrous from a bigger nurse tank to a tractor mounted tank when tractors could not carry so much weight.
They don't make them like this any more, 4 stroke chain drive and very little plastic. The starter recoil spring had come unhooked because one fastener loosened up. Put in a new plug, changed oil, lubed the chains and it's good for the big snow in the forecast and for more years to come. Below is a short movie of it starting and running...almost gets away from me in the back of the truck.
I'm using the caveman c-clamp method of compressing the accumulator so the lock ring can be removed. There is an official tool for this but I don't have one. The pin punch fits in a hole that pushes the lock ring in enough to fish it out with a seal pick. The accumulator goes in about 1/8 inch against the stop in the housing. If the nitrogen is gone the accumulator will wiggle in the housing as there is no pressure pushing it out...one test for a bad accumulator.
There is an O ring that seals the housing to the accumulator. The lock ring is at the bottom of the picture.
The blue accumulator is for disc/disc brakes charged to 450 psi and the gold for disc/drum brakes at 350 psi. Gold is the type needed for our GMC with original brakes. There are other types of these, some remote mount types and at least one using a spring instead of nitrogen for pressure.
A view of the housing with the accumulator removed.
Scrounged up three Bendix hydraulic brake boosters to maybe make one like I want. The top one is from a 99 Astro van, center Dodge flatbed and he bottom from a 94 Astro. Don't know what year the Dodge was as it was pretty much stripped. It was a gasser and had a long frame. Notice the angle of the 99 Astro mount plate and master cylinder. Maybe it will work better for the GMC. The blue and gold cylinders are accumulators with a nitrogen charge. Gold is for disc/ drum brakes charged to 350 lbs and blue for all disc brakes charged to 450 lbs. I'm looking to assemble a booster with a 1.56 power piston, .545 input rod and a .72 ratio lever. This will make a booster gain of a little more than 8 to 1.
The Dodge had a goofy angle adapter on the master cylinder end.
Angle adapter removed, now it has a pattern like GM uses.
Custom caveman square tube wrench used to remove the mount plate on the pedal end.
As Geico says a caveman can do it.
The input rod has to be cut in order to get it apart.
One solution is to thread the rod so any length extension can be fitted with whatever needs to be on the end to connect the pedal.
There was a 20 lb propane bottle I could not get to fill so I decided to cut the valve apart and do an autopsy.
The "new style" bottle connections have a valve in them that won't let gas out unless there is a fitting screwed in. This one was corroded enough that it would not move. Here is what he pieces look like.
The new style valves have an acme right hand external thread as compared to the POL left hand internal thread. This valve is not one of the OPD valves with a float deal to keep the tank from being filled past 80%.
Toyota bottle holder
Here is the other side of the QCC connector. Notice the round pin that is supposed to open the check valve. These have plastic knobs that are supposed to melt and release in a fire closing the valve. They come in different BTU ratings which is probably the size of the orifice.
3 HP lpg pump
Delco IAC motors. Orifices for these motors were .390 , .460 and .560.
More steppers and a Ford fast idle valve from a 5.0
These Delco steppers have 255 steps for the the full range
Both of these have spun out slots so the shaft slips. They won't repeat position.
Amana microwave plastic handle broke, no longer available. Fabricating a replacement.
handle installed, all stainless scrap material and about 4 hours time.