Brake Booster

Oct 3

*** Let me start this off with a disclaimer. What I’m talking about here is the modification of an OEM type vacuum brake booster. I’m dumb enough to attempt this with absolutely no knowledge of how these things work and zero experience with this sort of mod. Brakes are very critical for the safe operation of your vehicle. Properly working brakes are a must for keeping yourself, your passengers and those sharing the road with you, safe. Please do not attempt to copy anything you read in this blog about modifying the brake system of yours or anyone elses vehicle. If you do decide to copy anything I’ve done, you do so with my strongest objections and of your own free will. That blog should not be taken as a “How to” article. It is purely for entertainment purposes.***

Having unlocked the secret to making an OEM brake master cylinder fit in the car with the Cammer hogging all of the sheets, the job now is gathering all of the parts to make the secret work.

To be honest, Kevin did say that there was a guy in Ohio? who modified OEM brake boosters to be Boss 429 Boosters. The guy had a good reputation for the quality of his work but a not so good one for delivering the finished booster. He’s kind of flakey.

( Note: As of October 2022, I found a guy on eBay selling Concours correct brake boosters for the 1969 and 70 Boss 429 Mustangs. This wasn’t around 2 years ago when I was researching this part.)

The only real clue I got from Manley on what the booster is based on is that it came out of a truck. I can only assume he meant a Ford product.

A search through the internet for anything, “1969 Boss 429 Mustang brake booster” brought all sorts of hits but not too much on specifics of a 1969 Boss 429 Mustang brake booster.

The first positive hit was a Youtube posted by a shop that specializes in refurbishing vacuum brake booster. The guy was touting his skills and in his hands was a brake booster that was about to be tested and it was for Kevin Manley for a Boss 429 Mustang.

By stepping through the video, I was able to piece together a rough idea of what the booster looks like. Luckily the front cover has a unique design on it or at least it appeared to have one, I still couldn’t get a solid look at it.

Kevin had sent me some photos from a car they were building. It didn’t show the entire booster but what was visible matched what I saw on the Youtube video.

This is probably boring to you peeps but I was on the hunt. This was exciting to me and that’s what’s kept me interested in this whole project for this long. It’s a non-stop learning experience.

Seeing as the model year being built was a 69, I decided to investigate trucks from 1968. I did a search for brakes boosters for 1968 F-100, F-250 and F-350’s. The pictures I got back were very similar to what I saw on youtube and Kevin’s pics. I discovered three different boosters that had the same front cover, size and depth. The only visible difference’s I could see were with the push rods in the back.

I couldn’t track down the Ford part numbers for these boosters but by doing a search on Google for the trucks I had listed, I got a hit for a 1972 F-250 pick up truck on ebay. I also found a second one and it was a refurb from Cardone. The pictures matched what I was looking for. I took the Cardone number and Googled it. The pictures were consistent.

This is the front cover of the booster. If you remove the plate on the front and you’re part way to having a Boss 429 booster.

I swapped the last digit out for different base numbers and was able to get three boosters that matched what I was looking for.

I think Cardone has changed it’s numbering system but the three part numbers I was able to come up with were: 54-73512, 54-73514 and 54-73515

To get more confirmation on the looks, I Googled 1969 Boss 429 engine bay. I lucked out and some pictures of a Boss minus its master cylinder popped up. Pushing in several steps, I got a grainy picture but it showed me what I wanted to see, the entire front cover, and it matched the covers of the Cardone boosters I was looking at.