Brock Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 COMPLETE AND WORKING WELL! Writing it up so no one else has to buy four different master cylinders! Parts list for Vacuum booster conversion: Booster from an '89 Riviera - Cardone p/n 5471055 Master cyl from a '90 LeSabre Wagon - AC Delco p/n 18M172 appropriate nuts, flare tools, a tee for the front lines, and a bit of brake line. and a new check valve for the booster and some hose to attach it to the manifold. Caution --- Master Cyl is inverted flare and imperial threads... reattas are bubble flare and metric threads. you may need both flare tools. anti-lock will no longer work Caution pt.2 --- the eye on the actuator rod may not be the same size. I ended up taking the eye off the Reatta booster and threading the rod on the Riv booster to accept it. Booster itself bolted right in place with no fitment issues aside from jostling some lines around. Big Brake conversion - 1998 Oldsmobile Aurora Brakes Parts list: Front calipers with hangers: Raybestos p/n RC10840 and RC10839 Front Rotors: Raybestos p/n 56641 Rear calipers with hangers: two of the right caliper - Raybestos p/n FRC10886 (i bought a R and a L and one bleeder is upside down) Rear Rotors: Raybestos p/n 56241R Front Caliper bracket bolts - Dorman p/n 14006 I did all new hoses as well because mine were 34 years old. I used Reatta hoses- The rears had to be modified a bit to bolt to the new calipers- just a bit ground off one face of the fitting. It all essentially bolts right up with the exception that the front caliper mounts have to be drilled out. There was still plenty of meat left after embiggening the holes. These will most certainly NOT fit under the stock wheels. I currently have no fix for the parking brakes either. I'm working on that, though. Now, it might be that I was driving around for quite some time without power brakes, and it might be that my Teves unit was slowly dieing a terrible slow death for quite a while, but holy moley... I have all the brakes I will ever need on this thing now. Evidence against things I read about before taking this on: "Riviera stuff will just bolt right up no issue.. its practically the same car" NOPE - Rivs have four independent brake lines run to the master, with oddball unobtanium proportioning valves that thread into the master. Reattas have independent lines for the front and one line that runs to the back with a proportioning valve at the branch that splits to each rear wheel (just forward of the drivers rear wheel). "Aurora brakes bolt right up" NOPE... 98 and NEWER aurora brakes bolt right up. just have to drill the front caliper mounts to 9/16. Auroras also have a 1 1/8" bore master - rivs have a 1". LeSabre master solves that problem as well. Lastly a bunch of pics to show how it all fits. Always up for answering questions! 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 Looks like you did a great job on installing the vacuum brakes on your Reatta. Thanks for posting the information. I might add it to the how-to guides when I get some time. Did you have to modify the rod that connects to the brake pedal? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brock Posted October 4, 2022 Topic Author Share Posted October 4, 2022 I did have to modify that. the eye on the actuator rod had to be cut off the new booster and the rod had to be threaded to accept the eye from the teves booster, which screws off. I just used a caliper to measure center-of-eye to base of rod and made the measurements match with the help of a lock nut... should have taken a pic, my bad. It's kind of far in there to take a pic now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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