SPArKy_Dave 8,831 Posted July 27, 2019 I stumbled upon an old Brake Booster rebuild tutorial thread, over on the Ford Australia Forums, and thought it well worthy of adding to our Archives... Here's a summary of the rubber components (with pricing), used in the below rebuild - VH2013 - Reaction Disc - $6.60 VH2015 - Front Seal - $5.41 VH2029 - Rear Seal - $26.40 VH2579 - Main Diaphragm - $31.33 VH2580 - Main Diaphragm - $39.60 VH2581 - Seal - $21.12 VH2582 - Seal - The complete XC/XD/XE brake booster assembly part no. is/was VH395 For further info, see the following link to another excellent rebuild tutorial we have, created by fellow OzFalcon member 'jca4'. Full credit for the following write-up, goes to Wayne (aka XC GXL on Ford Forums). _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Some of us live overseas with these beauties and when something goes wrong we either have to spend a truck load on postage (and sometimes extra TAX) or we improvise with what is available to get our cars back on the road. Well I had a brake booster failure a little while back and fortunately I had a decent spare however I looked into getting a spare sent over and the cost of a reconditioned one including postage was frightening. I was fortunate enough to meet a bloke in Wollongong before I left in the brake and clutch business as I got some bits and pieces for the XC before I left home. When the booster failed I rang him and he was kind enough to send me over all of the major parts to recondition an XC/XD/XE brake booster. Here is an exploded view showing the parts I replaced.and here are a few photos of the replacement partsI decided to try to tackle a rebuild although I have never done so before and was a little daunted by it initially like how to spilt it, replacing diaphragms etc, etc. Well I managed to overhaul 3 that I had which were knackered with success. So for all of you guys living overseas and those of you who want to overhaul your own booster this is how I did it. Firstly I made up a jig to enable me to split the booster as the top section needs to be twisted from the lower section and can take a bit of force. The jig looks a little Heath Robinson but it worked a treat for me.Once the top is split the M20 rod, which incidentally is 500mm long with a 13mm hole 70mm deep drilled into each end to enable the plate to not foul with the Rod and Valve Assy (Part no 2377), is wound back to enable the spring to be detensioned safely. This part is really necessary during reassembly as trying to hold the spring down while trying to locate the top to the bottom is difficult.Remove the Rod and Valve Assy (2377). This is the one from a 38 year old car and needs a good clean. This is from a 38 year old XC and was a little worse for wear.I only used WD40 and wire wool to clean all these parts. Disassembled.All that is needed for this is a strip down, clean and reassemble. Make sure that the little piston is removed and cleaned and the reaction disc (Part No 2414 from drawing and replacement part no VH2013) replaced and that the piston is free to move. Once this is split the main diaphragm assembly can be removed from the housings. Again this takes a bit of force as the whole assembly needs to be pushed from the lower seal. This is how they look once removed. Any wonder the brakes were a little odd!To remove the pedal to booster assemble simply remove the circlip and the whole rod pushes out.To remove the diaphragms you will need a small flat blunt screwdriver as the diaphragms are sandwiched between the Valve Body (Part No 2391) and the Diaphragm Plates (Part No’s 2395A, 2395B and 2395C). Take note of the disassemble sequence although the assembly can only go one way when reassembling.here is the assembly without the diaphragmsRemove the rear seal from the main housing. This is not shown clearly on the Ford exploded view but is replacement part No VH2029. I then cleaned the whole lot up with wire wool, soapy water and some fine wet and dry. Replace all the diaphragms (replacement part No’s 2A365B = 2579 and 2A365A = 2588). This requires a little silicone grease around the inner lip of the diaphragm and then just force (using hands only) the diaphragm between the diaphragm plate and the Valve Body. It takes some effort but goes eventually. Do this for both Diapragms. Make sure that the diaphragm 2A365B (2579) is pushed up around the outer lip on 2395B as this allows the vacuum to be formed when in use. This is a final assembled unit.Also when the whole assembly is put back into the main housing make sure that the top diaphragms 2A365A is (2588) outer edge is below the retaining indents to enable a seal between the housing and the diaphragm plate 2395B. I then just put the whole part assembly back into the jig compressed the top housing and spring and then tapped the top cover around using a soft hammer and the plate that I made to go over the master cylinder mounting studs. I managed to do one in about 1 hour including cleaning. It is a pretty simple job really if you have the right set up. If there is anything I didn't describe well please let me know and I'll only be too happy to help where I can. Wayne 5 1 steve mcqueen, bear351c, macman and 3 others reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jca25 1,034 Posted July 31, 2019 That is a good write up done even better then the one i did lol, i good on rebuilding them just not good at the explaining Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bear351c 10,260 Posted July 31, 2019 Don't sell yourself short mate, your info was great. Thanks for posting. It's stuff like this that helps anyone doing up the old Fords. Excellent thread. 3 PapouGhia, macman and jca25 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SPArKy_Dave 8,831 Posted July 31, 2019 4 hours ago, bear351c said: Don't sell yourself short mate, your info was great. Thanks for posting. It's stuff like this that helps anyone doing up the old Fords. Excellent thread. *is great... @jca4's tutorial, will always be the original, and the best. 1 jca25 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jca25 1,034 Posted July 31, 2019 *is great... [mention=39]jca4[/mention]'s tutorial, will always be the original, and the best. Cheers mate but don't make feel to special, my head will to big hahahaSent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk 1 SPArKy_Dave reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IVC434 65 Posted April 18, 2021 Excellent. The brake booster on my XC is definitely going to need a lot of TLC and I'd much prefer to fix the original item, rather than replace it... Thank you for sharing this tutorial. 2 deankxf and SPArKy_Dave reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jacked 8 Posted October 17, 2021 Awesome write up. The jig Sparky fabricated freaked me out a bit and almost made me not try and disassemble but I thought I could get away without it... and it worked! I sprayed wd40 around clamping surfaces, placed booster in a vice and tightened the two nuts, used clamp to stop the top flying away under spring pressure and then used a two foot crow bar to twist. Came away surprisingly easy. Cleaned and inspected all parts and other than a bit of rust she looks good. Ill still chase up with the experts about what I should replace since its apart. Still can't work out how to pull diaphragms off without damaging since they look OK but Ill post some photos . Thanks for the write up Sparky! 1 gregaust reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jacked 8 Posted October 17, 2021 2 deankxf and gregaust reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jca25 1,034 Posted October 18, 2021 Awesome write up. The jig Sparky fabricated freaked me out a bit and almost made me not try and disassemble but I thought I could get away without it... and it worked! I sprayed wd40 around clamping surfaces, placed booster in a vice and tightened the two nuts, used clamp to stop the top flying away under spring pressure and then used a two foot crow bar to twist. Came away surprisingly easy. Cleaned and inspected all parts and other than a bit of rust she looks good. Ill still chase up with the experts about what I should replace since its apart. Still can't work out how to pull diaphragms off without damaging since they look OK but Ill post some photos . Thanks for the write up Sparky! Hey mate U have gone to the trouble of getting to this point, when I did these things as a job it was very rare we wouldn't replace the diaphragms once brake fluid get to them it doesn't take long to stuff them up, the hardest part out of the whole thing is doing the rear and middle seals without breaking them, be careful with the Bakelite parts can break easy even though it looks hard as Sent from my SM-A125F using Tapatalk Share this post Link to post Share on other sites