Dying servo? By new or recon the old

[RichT]

Hi all

I have been playing with the mk 2 again and have noticed a hissing sound emanating from the area of the brake servo reaction valve air cleaner when the engine is switched off. I guess this is some kind of vacuum leak from the reaction valve and may indicate a dying servo, also the car has never idled very well and I should look at this before messing with carbs etc. I guess if I blank of the manifold vacuum line that might answer this question. The brakes on the go seem to work just fine.

I haven’t conducted the series of tests suggested previously on this forum yet but in the event of bad news and the lack of servo/ reaction valve parts availability what is the general experience with having the original servo rebuilt vs say the new replacements from sng barret

All help and advice gratefully received

Cheers

Richard

[RichardSEL]

Depends on who's doing the rebuild. My experience with caliper, master cylinder, and vacuum servo rebuilders has been variable.

One firm, not a million miles from Norwich was useless and dangerous. One firm was OK in caliper quality but administratively useless (forgot the bolts and pad retainers, then sent down the wrong ones) One firm was excellent in Mk IX calipers (rare to find someone who knows and has some parts for those), vacuum servo, and two master cylinders. But more expensive with a longer lead in time -- Contract Auto Engineering in Stourport on Severn.

[RichT]

Hi Richard thanks for your reply, this seems to be the way of things with all things automotive, I had issues when I had to replace the rear springs on my mk 2, I had two sets from a well known parts suppliers which were obviously Chinese and of four different lengths with no interleaving. I eventually fitted UK made ones from David manners which went in first time.

For this reason I am very wary of buying the “new” servo kit from sng Barrett unless someone from the club has done so with success


Cheers for now

Richard