I have gotten my 78 Pinto past emissions, and have plates. Finally. Much has been sorted out and it is running well, but one nagging problem remains. When the car is cold, and first fires up, if you pull out and hit the brakes (power), it is very hard to get the car to stop... it acts like the booster is trying but not succeeding. Backing my story up a few months, when I overhauled the rear wheel cylinders I fully bled the system, and everything seemed to work fine, but then I read about having to "set" the diverter valve. According to the book, you turn on ignition (not running the car, just idiot lights on) and press down on the brakes until the brake light on the dash goes off. Uh oh, my brake light does not come on! Is it the bulb, or is the diverter shot? Could that be the problem? I fully intend to follow the book procedures to test the booster, as I have no evidence of a problem with the master cylinder. When the car warms up, magically, the brakes work great, and will stop on a proverbial dime with no effort.
I DID replace the original 1978 hose to the intake manifold, and discovered the booster was still holding pressure after days of sitting. I could be wrong, but the booster seems to be trying very hard (when you push hard on the brakes you can nearly kill the motor, partly because I need to adjust my choke idle setting up) then after a few minutes running it all straightens out. Right now, my gut is pointing to the diverter valve being a problem, but until I check and verify the booster, I cannot be sure, and I really don't want to pull the dash to check the bulb (I have done it before... not as bad as other cars, but not fun, especially undoing the brittle speedo cable connector)... any ideas?