Evening fellas, my brakes have gone hard, and I'm suspecting it is the vacuum pump. I'll put a vacuum gauge on it. How much suck should I be looking for?

Great quote from the movie Fubar... "you got the suck **** cranked! Turn down the suck, turn up the good!"

 

I believe it's about 18-20 inches of vacuum.

Check the lines going to and from the vacuum pump
and then check the lines at the manifold where they split off for cracks.

 

If I check the vacuum right at the brake booster should I get the same numbers? Or, do we loose some suction somewhere?

 

Should be nearly the same at the booster as at the pump; the HVAC should bleed off negligible vacuum. If it's considerably lower at the booster than at the pump, I'd say you have a leak.

 

If the pump fails your vent controls will suffer as well. If they still work then you may have a brake issue instead of a vac pump issue

 

Thanks men, heading out to the shop to test her out now. It's been so freakin' cold here the vents never move off windshield defrost! -28c here tonight! That converts to, like, really cold in Fahrenheit!

 

^^^^ I believe that converts to Insane degrees below Friggin'.....

 

Where do you live? In a deep freezer?

 

I live in god's country, Kenora Ontario Canada, just a really cold god right now...

So, the vac pump is porked. She make's zero suck.

The next question is, does a wise man just buy a new pump and carry on. OR... does a wiser, more complicated man change things?? Say, electric vacuum pump, or some other type of super-mod setup?

Also, a little fun fact. The vents seemed to change positions, even with the line right off the vacuum pump? Does this make sense?

 

No electric pump can run the booster. You'd have to go to hydroboost brakes, then get an e-pump for the HVAC. Doable, but not cheap or easy.

No surprise about the HVAC working; it takes VERY little vacuum compared to the brake booster.

 

You could get rid of the vacuum pump and run a hydro boost setup like found in the super dutys. Unless you tow heavy daily I don't personally think it's worth it.

I bought a replacement A1 cardone vacuum pump from amazon about 8 months ago now from amazon. It's been working awesome. Was about $100 shipped.

As for your vents changing if you unplug the vacuum from them as the pressure changes it could be actuating them.

 

that is the quote of the day!