Brand new master cylinder and o-ring. No sign of brake fluid in the
booster (though I have one available to put in if thats the problem.)
I'm really tending to think that the noise is from the pressure
reducer device. Which is NLA of course. Van-Cafe is temporarly out of
used ones, though they expect a couple in next week.

I like how Van-cafe says, "rarely fails, but NLA new" in the
description for their used ones. Sort of a critical part to the
brakes. Oh, well, the price of an 18 year old vehicle...

On Jul 31, 2009, at 6:35 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote:

> I'd check the o-ring that's between the master cylinder and booster.
> I'd also look for signs of brake fluid inside the booster,
> and deteriorated paint on it......from brake fluid leaking from the
> master cylinder.
>
> it's odd............great breaking when it's making the sound.
> My attention is sure drawn to the booster.
> and the vacuum nose from engine to brake booster.
>
> I have seen twice............what looked like to be an ice pick
> hole poked into a vanagon plastic line.......
> for no reason 'at all'..............just a hole in the plastic line,
> appearing to be punctured in from the outside.
>
> One was a vacuum brake booster line.
> one was a plastic coolant bleed rail around the top of a 2.1
> waterboxer engine compartment. And no explanation of how those holes
> got there at all.
>
> thanks for saying it's a Westy Syncro .  Will be interested to see
> what you find.
> Scott
> www.turbovans.com
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kim Brennan" <kimbrennan@MAC.COM>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 2:43 PM
> Subject: Brakes, reprise
>
>
>> Welp, I had hopes that the issue with my brakes on my Westy Syncro
>> was
>> the master cylinder. But no such luck. Problem still exists. A
>> review,
>> when braking, if I pump the brakes, I'll get braking, but usually all
>> the way down at the floor. Occasionally I will hear a airy buzzing
>> sound from the center of the dash and on those occasions, I will get
>> braking at the top of the pedal.
>>
>> Since that's come from the center of the dash area, I'll have to
>> follow the sound.
>