ITC Fiesta brake booster or no brake booster?

[swiftin]

When I bought the car it had a brake servo but I think it may be leaking. Did everyone run these cars in the day without a servo? I have new master cylinders for both systems (boosted and non-boosted) but I think it is going to be difficult to find repair parts for the servo. Will the pedal effort increase significantly?
Also, any recommendations for gear oil? Thanks, Kurt

[joeg]

Ususally the pedal ratios are different on a boosted vs. non-boosted car.

I do not recall if it had a booster, but I think that all imported into the States would be all with or all without.

[Chip42]

I don' tknow the car well enough to even start answering the brake question, excpet to say that the showroom configuration in the USA is how you must run it in IT. if you could get it unboosted, go that way, but be sure to replace EVERYTHING that would be different with that system. anything sold for the street will have a low enough pedal effort to be tolerable. Even in Prod or GT, any good brake system should not have an overly stiff pedal.

gear oil: Amsoil/Royal Purple/Redline/Shaeffer/lucas/mobil1 etc... all have good options. application matters. For a manual transaxle or plain gear oil (i.e. synchros or no?) and do you need a diff additive? I'm betting FWD transaxle, 80ish weight, locker or eckerich style diff without additive, and GL4 or below synchros, and recommend amsoil manual transaxle or redline MT90. both work great and are readily available.

[jimbbski]

When I raced my Fiesta it came with a brake booster, in fact all of the Fiestas (3) that I owned had one. If any came without I don't recall seeing any.

Just did a quick check at RockAuto and they do list a rebuilt booster for the Fiesta so you should be able to get one through them or other sources.

I used synthetic gear lube 75W-90 with the stock diff and with the Quafe when I installed that. One thing that I would mention is if you do happen to open up the transaxel is to check out the internal shift linkage. Twice the linkage failed on me at the track when a retaining pin failed. It was a simple fix but it required you to remove the transaxel to fix it. The second time I drilled the hole bigger and used a bigger roll pin.

The first time the trans was stuck in 4th gear and the other time in neutral.

[Gary Swanson]

I do not have a brake booster on my ITC Fiesta. Brakes have always felt spongy, but seem to work. Subject to fade if you overwork them. Brake pedal pressure is easy. you don't need the booster for that. However, seems I remember that at some point someone was claiming the booster helped stiffen the firewall. I find it a bit hard to believe but that was the claim.

I can also tell you that the Fiesta does NOT turn in at the end of the Mid-Ohio straight when you blow out one of the front brake lines and have zero braking. Very interesting ride!
gls

[Florida Fiesta]

I've had 4 fiesta's (2 street, 2 race) and none of them had boosters.
Like Gary says, the brakes can be a bit spongy but after years of fluid/pad combos, what has worked for me is using Motul 600 with the Porterfield R4E pad on the front with 2.5 dia brake hose.... no more sponginess even at Sebring club course.