I was searching for a manual brake master cylinder for my Cobra (as a vacum booster will interfere with steering and headers) and ended up buying a GM powermaster unit on ebay for 66 bucks. That's what it looks like:
Before I had never even heard about an electric brake booster but when I saw this thing it seemed to me like it'll solve a lot of problems if I put it in my Cobra.
I thought I was the first person to ever do this but now I'm happy to see some of you guys have one in their Cobras as well and this conversion is not uncommon (esp. on FFR cars). So this should work quite well for my Cobra too!
All I have is what's shown in the picture. This means I have the brake master cylinder, electric pump, accumulator, fluid reservoir and lines, so the unit is pretty complete. What I'm missing is the wiring harness and controller. What stuff do I need and how does the system work at all?
I assume pressure is built up in the accumulator by the pump until the switch tells the pump to stop when pressure is high enough. Is there some kind of controller between the switch and pump or is it simply wired via some kind of relay? Do I need to use original GM parts or can I fabricate a custom wiring harness?
What wire has to be connected to what pin? Where do the ground wire and the 12 Volt current supply go?
As you can see the electrical installation of the unit is the most challenging part for me as I have practically no information yet.
Another consideration is if I can use the Ford actuating rod, but I think this should be no problem as long as it fits in the hole of the cylinder but isn't too loose on the other hand.
I hope someone who has done this installation before can help me!
Thanks,
Simon