Brakes: 63 gt hawk brakes

[rockyjon]

I have a 63 gt hawk that has the f type hydrovac system with front discs rear drums or at least it did. I sent it out several years ago for rebuild the first time it came back the brakes failed and i backed the car down a cliff. Its only funny if you weren't in the car' ok it was a little funny and it obviously wasnt to steep of a cliff. They apologized and imediatley sent me a new hydrovac my friendly nieghorhood mechanic installed the rebuilt booster and the brakes seemed to work poorly at best I almost t boned a car trying to stop at intersection. The car has now sat for a couple years and I have no brakes at all again. This time i took it to a old timer mechanic who says they gave me the wrong type of hydrovac and the master cylinder is leaking. I cannot get the hydrovac rebuilt seeing as how I have a d type instead of the original f type and can't seem to find one to rebuild. I am being told by the mechanic to just remove the hydrovac and go with manual brakes that would be harder to use but more reliable. I have started to read alot about retrofitting the brakes to a dual master cylinder among other various options but have no idea where to go from here. Money is an issue but if the car kills me i guess money won't matter. Could use a little friendly advice

[Dan White]

Studebaker Intl is selling new hydrovacs. You might want to call them to see if they have the correct one for your car. You can also post a wanted ad in TW or on the Studebaker Swaps site. The disk/drum hydrovacs definitely are different than the drum/drum type, but I am not sure this is your problem. I have hydrovacs on both of my Hawks and they work just fine. Did you bleed the hydrovac as well as the lines when you installed the last unit? If not your power unit will not work and your brakes will be non-existant. Please see the factory service manual for the correct procedure. Also, you need to add a bit of neatsfoot oil every year or so in the main vacuum cylinder to make sure you have good vacuum on the piston. I would not go with manual brakes on a stock disk/drum setup.