Power Brake booster restoration.
 

I was curious who has RECENT experience with the booster rebuilding services like Power Brakes.com, or Booster Dewey, or some others? My two top priorities are high quality Zinc Dichromate plating the correct color and finish and a reasonable turnaround time. I am not interested in replacing it with a Chinese booster. Thanks for your experiences.

I am posting this as a public service and a warning. Back in July when I started this thread I was hoping for some response. Since there was no response, I went ahead and became the Guinea Pig and sent my SD-455 OE booster to Power Booster Exchange, (formerly Booster Dewey) in Lynnwood WA. Transaction started out well enough with an E-mail and a detailed quick response from them outlining all the wonderful things they would do including a new Zinc Di-chromate finish. The refinishing was the only thing I actually needed. The booster was in perfect working order when I sent it out and held vacuum for weeks or longer.
Initially, they said it would be a 6-week turnaround time because the re-plating would take a little longer. I was fine with that. I waited 2 months and gave them a call. Annie Mae. (SP) , is the only person I have spoken directly to at any time. After 3 months and no booster and no real reason given, I began to call every 3 weeks to see what the hold up was. Still extremely cordial and trying the sugar approach hoping to just get info and my booster back.

After 4 months, the BS excuses began in this order; 1. the housings have not been returned from the platter. We will follow up, 2. We have all the pieces now, just waiting for assembly, should just be a few days. 3. We assembled it and it will not hold vacuum, we will re-work it and test it. 4. It still won't hold vacuum, has a tiny leak we can not find. We are ordering some new parts. 5. The parts are on backorder. 6. We have the parts now, it will be assembled tomorrow. 7. The technicians who do the assembly are on vacation. 8. We have it reassembled and it is still leaking, we don't know what's wrong. 9. We have a senior technician who is a expert. He will be working on it and find the issue and repair it.

Finally, after 5 1/2 months I call again. Annie Mae tells me "I am glad you called, it is all fixed and ready to ship". At this point I should say that NEVER did they call me about anything. I always had to call them. So like an idiot, I took them at their word and they shipped it back to me for $370.80 charged to my credit card.

I get it back here to the shop and open the box. It is the same booster I sent in. I had engraved tiny initials in the housing in a hidden area to make sure. I hook it up to a vacuum source to test it before installation. It has a GIANT vacuum leak in the control valve area. We are not talking a small or tiny leak. It is a giant hissing noise like the vacuum line isn't even attached to the booster.

NO WAY IN THE WORLD it was ever tested in any way. It won't function as a booster and will not hold vacuum for 1 second. I should mention again it was in perfect working order when I sent it out. Now, they have my money and refuse to answer the phone or E-mails.

So PLEASE don't send anything to this company unless you just have $370.80 to throw away. I am disputing the charge with my credit card company but don't expect good results. The guinea pig got his bacon fried. Don't become the next victim.

caca

Hope your card company helps you and while you didn't get the feedback you needed, your post will help someone else.

Once the money issue is solved one way or another, I will probably take it apart myself and see what they did wrong. These boosters need 2 special tools to disassemble them. I can weld one up pretty easily and the other tool is just a long flat bar with 2 holes in it. These single boosters are really simple inside. There are 5-6 pieces in there. It's certainly not rocket science and this was the ONLY thing this place does. Rebuild boosters. They have been in business for decades. I really don't understand this one.

Yes, it is the former Dewey brake booster business. They had a solid reputation and I couldn't find any red flags about the continuing business. They advertise everywhere, no less than 20 print ads a month in Hemmings. Guess I was just the unlucky customer. This car has ZERO Chinese knock-off parts on it. Everything is OE or NOS replacements. The $139.00 Chinese knock-off booster is looking mighty good right now I must admit. Other than wanting to keep the car as China free as possible, the knock-off boosters are not quite the right color. They are too bright and just don't look quite right. If I can't fix the OE booster Power Booster Exchange ruined, I may have to use one.

A buddy just had them do a booster, it’s came out nice, they did loose a part he send along, but they found it and it all worked out. His car was a 79 TA

I had to deal with the runaround from an out of state transmission builder years back. Luckily I had paid by credit card initially. I was then getting a hem haw attitude from the CC company when I tried to dispute the charges for the transmission. I asked to speak to their CC security person. I threw the word “fraud” out there, and all the sudden they wanted to file a claim. I don’t know what it was, but when I said that word, their attitude totally changed.

At 11:15 AM today which would have been 8:15 AM in WA, I get a call from Annie Mae, (SP), at Power Brake Exchange. It's important to mention this is the FIRST time they have contacted me in the 5 1/2 months this ordeal has been playing out. She said they didn't answer my 2 voice mails and e-mails because she was out sick a few days. She didn't sound great on the phone. She said her boss has authorized a full refund for everything and it should show up in the next 5 business days. I hope they follow through. She did also offer to have me send it back and they would fix it but I am going to look at it myself instead. They had 5 1/2 months to put it together and test it. For experts like they are supposed to be, rebuilding a single diaphragm unit shouldn't take more than 1.5 hours max. Kinda curious to see what part they left out anyway.

I did file a report with the BBB, my credit card company. Pretty sure this is what prompted the lightening fast response. I am confident, without those actions, I would never have heard from them again. I am the most non-confrontational person out there. But eventually, you finally reach the end of your good will. I will report back on the final resolution.

Following...I have 2 boosters I was considering getting rebuilt...Now I'm considering the power booster in the AMES catalog.

One of my friends had a Booster rebuilt and re-platted by Mike Gibbons 220 Machado Lane, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 Brake Boosters.com. I spoke to him today. Very professional and he was willing to re-work this mess I have if I can't figure it out. My friends booster was a Delco single diaphragm, 9" out of a 66 Bonneville. He sent it out 3 months after I sent mine in and had it back in 8 weeks. Looks good and works perfectly. I would certainly consider him. The Chinese boosters Ames, Classic, and Inline Tube are certainly a bargain at around $150.00. About 1/2 the cost of having an OE one rebuilt. If doing a high point restoration, the color of the platting, Zinc Di-Chromate is too bright and too yellow. But for 99% of the cars out there, probably fine. I have to assume they function OK or the internet world would have told us. I personally have never used one.......yet.

I've used Harmon Classic Brakes in Georgia, but only for other cars without plated boosters. They were more expensive than Booster Dewey, but like you I could never get anyone on the phone to talk to and they never returned my email. Both boosters came back working fine within a couple weeks at most.

I think this was the place where Steve G owned the company before it was sold to Mike. They always had a good reputation and am going to send mine there one of these days. https://www.brakeboosters.com/
Thanks, Marc.

I sent my bumper jack post to Mike Gibbons to be replated. Came back in a few weeks and I'm very happy with the result.

According to the AMES catalog notes on the plated boosters..."Quality: Excellent"

A little update on the brake booster saga. It's been just over two weeks since Brake Booster Exchange contacted me seeming to be very anxious to put this debacle behind them. Annie Mae (sp) explained they would credit me for the entire transaction amount and I said I was fine with that. After waiting a week with no credit issued, I called last Monday to find out why. She said "Our accountant is in the office today and was going to cut you a check today!" I said fine and verified my address, knowing this was just another lie. Now 8 days later, no check has been received here. No surprise. I plan to call again tomorrow for the new, updated lie. I am also going to go ahead and open an investigation with the WA State Attorney's General Office. They should be made aware that there is a scam business operating and keep an eye on them. I haven't had a chance to open the booster up yet to find what they did wrong. I am making a couple tools now to do this. Probably later this week.

I'd like to see what that tool looks like when you make it. Maybe I'll be able to make one too.....Thanks

I also made a tool to disassemble power booster halves. After relieving the staking, I bolted a used master cylinder to the booster and secured it in my hydraulic press. I then bolted a square channel with holes drilled to match the bracket hole locations. Spacers were inserted to prevent collapse of the brackets. The spacer closest to the power piston needs to be cut in half lengthwise to avoid touching it.

I found that used weathered boosters need a lot of leverage to open them up and that the tool in the service manual needs to be augmented to handle the real stubborn ones.

Reassembly is facilitated with an application of Dow Corning Vacuum Grease on the diaphragm to housing surfaces.

gto4ben...thanks for the info...looks easy enough.