Brake Booster

Hi there. I was recently wandering around a junk yard, and I noticed what appeared to be a mid 80s Chevy Caprice wagon that did not have a power brake booster. My Chevy's all have the big round booster mounted to the firewall, with the master cylinder mounted directly in front of the booster.

However this mid 80s wagon, which appeared to be in original condition, had a master cylinder connected to a shaft, with vacuum inputs to the shaft. Never seen anything like it before, just curious what the deal was. I took a picture of it, but not sure how to load it on here.

Thanks

I took a picture of it, but not sure how to load it on here.
Thanks
If you want to post a pic , the first thing to do is upload it to an image hosting site such as tinypic.com . Get the URL tag for it and then you are ready to put it in your post. First type then type or paste the image tag next, then end it with . Click on "Preview Post" to see if it comes up all right. If the image is too large, you will get an error message and you must then resize it smaller and try again. Once you see it successfully in your post then you are all set to click on "submit reply".

That is called Hydroboost. It's driven with the power steering pump. It's a great alternative for vehicles with big cams that don't produce much vacuum at idle. My guess is the car you saw was originally a diesel. They were standard on those as well.

My Astro van has it too. I think it's just a space saving issue there though.

They were used on many wagons, which made it easy for the factory to install either a gas or diesel engine. I had to replace mine, I supplied the part, the shop I use installed it, according to them it was a bitch. I had another junk wagon around at the time, I should have swapped over the power booster and the works from that one.

Bob

I had an '85 Caprice wagon with the 305 (gas) and hydroboost, all stock. They're fairly common on trucks and vans, too.

I have it in an '84 wagon. They're a bit noiser than vacuum booster brakes but it stops well. After buying one and having someone install it, I'd shy away from another old car that had one, ran me like $450 total. The master is also odd to cars with a hydro boost.

Bob