Electric vaccuum canister good idea or risky?

Would like to have power brakes, but pump gas race motor only makes 6 HG vacuum. Only option is to install an electric vacuum pump. But I am concerned about reliability. If the electric motor dies, then I won't be able to safely stop the car. Maybe I should just upgrade to bigger disks and better pistons and stay manual. Perhaps after these types of upgrades I will be able to stop the car easier with a manual setup. However, I would like to upgrade to these better brake components from my 76 Dodge Aspen components regardless, and would like to have power brakes if it can be done safely and reliably.

Bump.

Check out ssbc, they got an electric vacum canister.

I am in the same boat. I get about 9Hg of vacuum - not enough for power brakes which I do have on the car.

I got this kit from SSBC as well as a vacuum canister which serves as a reservoir for vacuum.

I only have about 100 miles on the kit - and think it will be adequate. With the addition of a vacuum can - I will get a good 2 stops, maybe 3 with some vacuum assist.

Where reliability is an issue however - is the relay. I already had one fail where the small soldered contacts shook loose and therefore the pump motor wouldn't run. Poor quality solders was the primary cause. The pressure switch runs to the relay to turn the pump on when the vacuum runs low.

I have a new relay - but am thinking about putting in an emergency switch and guage where I can directly turn the motor on and bypass the relay.

All told - not an ideal solution so far for me. Based on my experience with it - I kind of wish I had manual brakes!

Manual brakes it is. Or would be. I am about to sell my ride and take up another hobby.

If you use a cannister it's not really much different than if you had the booster hooked up to you engine and the engine cut out. You get 2-3 stops and that's all she wrote. Only real difference is that when your engine stalls, you usually notice it!!!

Use a canister and upgrade the cheap pos relay that comes with the kit to something heavier. The reason the relays fail is because the can is relatively small and with constant use (heavy stop and go traffic) the vacuum level fluctuates quite a bit, causing the pump to short cycle and burning the relay contacts.

You could also get a second vacuum switch set to make at a slightly lower point than the one that controls the pump and use it as a 'low vacuum' alarm with a red light on the dash to alert you that something is wrong.

I'm running a vacuum pump from MP Brakes very satisfied with it. On the car now 5 years and have had no problems with it at all. Mounted the pump under the battery box, wired it to run with the key in the run position. Works good, great pedal feel, look into it. Good luck.

Another thing you can do is what my friend did on his Nova. If you have a power steering pump you can run a hydroboost setup. He junkyard sourced all the parts. It cost him next to nothing and works great.