Ever bought a reman brake booster?

I'm about to buy one. Cardone seems to be the only company selling them. I've bought some shoddy reman parts by Cardone before and I've bought some good ones too, so I'd like to know if anybody here has bought one, and whether they were satisfied with the fit, the look and function of it, whether it lasted, etc. Or can you point me to another manufacturer?

If people say it's a good part or nobody says anything either way, I'll go ahead and get it. If people say otherwise I'll just keep looking or make something else fit. I just don't want to spend $110 and have something show up at my door that looks the way a Cardone water pump does...

 

I've used them in the past (not on a mav though) and the fit and function was fine.

 

And I'm sure on most cars their parts are fine. Only reason I'm even talking about it is, since this part is available only as a reman, and I've seen what a typical Maverick brake booster looks like after 35 years, I imagine there's a lot of work to do if they're going to make a "good-as-new" part out of the kind of cores I've seen. And I'm wondering how much of that work they actually do. Do they just wash it, swap the diaphragm out, paint over the rust and that's it?

For instance I've bought a Cardone water pump for the Maverick that looked like it was just hauled out of the junkyard, thrown in a dishwasher and then the seals and bearings were replaced. There was visible rust damage on it so bad that I had doubts about it sealing against the gasket, so I took it back. I think they used a core for that one that they just shouldn't have used. Also bought an alternator for another car that had lots of pits, chips and nicks all over it. It worked fine, but didn't look too good.

A lot of people don't care how a car part looks. Probably most people don't, and I shouldn't, but I do and I know the good folks of the MMB notice this kind of thing too...

 

Perhaps I am overthinking this... I do that...

 

Not sure what they do to them,or what they would look like for a mav/comet application,but with certain parts only being aval.re- manned,the choices are getting slimmer and slimmer year after year.Once I got a re-manned water pump that looked like someone beat it to death with a hammer.Was nice and clean,but dented and pitted to hell.Took it back and got a new,not rebuilt one.

 

Exactly. If I could get this part new I would, or even if I could get it at the local parts store... Where I can open it up on the counter and say, "Nope, this one sucks, let's see another one" but this is one I've got to order and I'm dreading it.

I tried so hard to avoid this that I actually made an '03 Crown Vic brake booster fit, and that's what I'm running right now. Only problem is the brakes are quite a bit overboosted. The touch is so light that I'm pretty sure I could stop the car without turning on the brake lights if I really tried. I thought I'd like it, but it's actually really disturbing...

 

We have a local company John Stuart brake that does them. Excellent company.

http://www.johnstuartpowerbrake.com/

 

Thanks. Kinda too late though, as I destroyed my old booster when I cut the rod off to lengthen the one on the Crown Vic booster. So nobody's gonna be rebuilding that...

I went ahead and ordered the Cardone booster. Since it doesn't seem to be a matter of general knowledge around here, I will post my opinion as soon as it gets here. O'Reilly's photo of the part makes me worry, check out the pitting and corrosion visible here. And this is the part they thought looked good enough for a picture...





I'm being too picky, I know. I'm lucky this part can be bought at all...

 

I'm a PSM(Parts Sales Manager AKA Glorified Cashier) for Autozone so one of the perks of the job is that I receive all of the hard parts that come into the store... Actually the Master Cylinder that I bought for the Comet came with a bolt on cap which was kinda neat... Physically the part doesn't look too bad.. I think it's hit or miss really, it kinda boils down to the cores that are accepted. Figure the parts for our cars are old and there aren't many places making new ones for them.. I know what you mean though, when I bought my remanufactured water pump, the pitting on the outside was pretty bad.. Next time I'm just gonna buy a nice polished aluminum one

 

I work in the O'reillys electronic catalog department. The pictures are sent to us by the manufacturers. They could have picked a nice booster for the picture but im sure they just grabbed one at random for the picture. Usually we are just glad to hace an ACTUAL picture of that part number and not a generic picture like we used to get years ago. If you don't like Cardone then Wagner lists a part number for it also, though it is not currently available from my vendor list, maybe napa or carquest could source the Wagner part.

 

I need a booster too and theres a place here that has great reputation for rebuilding them... But i just cant bear putting the stock one back in there. Its kinda ugly and oversized. Also im going to be using a gnarly cam and it wont even provide enough vacuum for it. Im going to try and see if i can use a metro one they require less vacuum and are pretty small compared to the stock one. Best of all i can use a regular shock tower brace instead of the PB one. But id still like to hear the results of the cardone one.

 

Just looked it up in the Carquest listing. They only list a Cardone.
140 my price, 201 list price/Canadian pricing


https://www.mycarquesthomepage.com/acl/?mfgName=CARQUEST/CARDONE INDUSTRIES&partNumber=54-73519

 

(Sigh...)

Rockauto just called me. As always their service is top-notch and I continue to be impressed by them, however it's no use to me this time. Cardone does not have this part in stock, and they are Rockauto's only supplier for it. Seem to be everybody's only supplier. Some places list a Wagner part, but the part number for both "loaded" and "unloaded" are identical to Cardone's numbers so I suspect they are actually Cardone parts, although I'll see if I can go that route.

So Rockauto refunded the order, then suggested I find a Maverick forum and ask around...

 

That's funny stuff right there I don't care who you are that's funny stuff. God forgive me and please be with the pigmies in new guinea.... hahahahaa

 

Drew,don't know if you want to go this route,but it's an option. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CENT...=Make:Ford|Model:Maverick&hash=item20b436c92b