Brake booster

The brake booster uses vacuum from the intake manifold to increase the braking force supplied by the driver. The booster consists of a metal canister with a diaphragm, a valve and a rod that goes through it that connects the brake pedal and the master cylinder. When the engine is started the manifold vacuums creates a vacuum inside the booster on one side of the diaphragm. When the pedal is pressed the valve is opened allowing air at atmospheric pressure to enter the booster that pushes on the diaphragm that is connected to the push rod. The push rod pushes the piston in the master cylinder with the force from the driver and the force from the atmospheric pressure/ vacuum from the engine.

The length of the push rod can be adjusted to reduce the clearance between the piston and the push rod. To find out how much the push rod had to be adjusted we measured the length of it from the surface of the booster to the end of the rod. We measured the inside of the master cylinder from the outside edge to the piston and subtracted the distance from the surface that gets bolted to the booster to the outside edge that goes into the booster. We then took the measurement of the length inside the cylinder and subtracted the length of the rod to fined the clearance and how much adjustment the push rod needed. If the clearance is correct the brakes will be more responsive and it could reduce a vehicles stopping distance.