long story short, I bought a 74 dart from a friend, and when driving it home I noticed a vacuum leak everytime I'd hit the brakes. Bad booster, so I pulled over and capped the vacuum line to the booster. The problem now is that I'm rockin' manual brakes.

I got on ebay and what not, and looked up the prices for a rebuilt booster........... over 200 bucks!!!!!!! thats almost half of what i paid for the whole car!

Is there anyway to take this apart and replace the leaky diaphragm? I googled around a bit, but couldn't find anything on diaphragm replacement..

When I was subscribing to Hemmings, there was a guy in there who rebuilt boosters - "Booster Dewey" was his company IIRC. I don't subscribe to HMN anymore so don't know if he's still around.

Rebuild kits aren't made generally available to the public. Haven't been for decades. I'm not entirely sure why; safety-based guesses are floating around, but they don't make any sense given that anyone can buy wheel cylinders and master cylinders and rebuild kits for both of 'em, not to mention all the other parts. "Booster Dewey" is still doin' his thing. It'll cost probably not too much less than the $200 price you found locally. Take note, you haven't got nonpower brakes now you've capped the vacuum line, you've got unboosted power brakes, which are a lot harder to operate than nonpower brakes. You may want to consider eliminating the booster altogether.

But if not, make sure it's not the vacuum check valve causing your problem.

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

hmm, yeah I got curious and popped it open, and everything inside is just crap. After seeing that, I would feel better buying a new booster and master cylinder kit.

If you could buy a New booster that would be the way to go, but everything you're going to find is remanufactured and the reman at the local parts store is likely to be garbage. Booster Dewey does good work. He went through the booster in my wife's '72 Duster after it failed. It's somewhat expensive, but if you're going to keep the power brakes it's the best way to go.

_________________
Joshua

I took a chance on my 78 Fury when I got it and went for a Cardone rebuild. Took twice to get the right one (consolidation of before/after dates in app. catalog) but once I had the correct one it went on easy and worked fine.