After reading through Mac’s ibooster thread earlier this year and how he was worried about stalling his Jeep on a hill and losing power brakes, I started doing some research and asked a co-worker who used to be a mechanic about the ibooster as well and how I was thinking about retro-fitting one to my Jeep since I have a manual too and he said why don’t you add a stand-alone brake vacuum pump instead? I said what was that and after he explained how the system worked, I said well that sounds a lot simpler. So, a couple weeks later we took a trip to the local u-pick salvage yard and scored!!!
Components we pieced together for the kit:
After looking around the engine bay for a bit, we decided to remove the ABS plate under the brake booster (my Jeep didn’t come with option) and that open area under the plate turned out to be perfect (at least we thought) for mounting the pump and relay. We needed to modify the mounting bracket a bit but nothing serious. We were also able to use existing holes in the bracket for mounting. Only had to drill one hole in the body and used j-clips instead of nuts to tighten everything down.
Signal power was spliced into the purge solenoid circuit (looking for a switched ignition signal) and integrated into the existing harness loom that runs over the driver side fender wheel well and down to the vacuum pump.
I have included a number of pictures below highlighting the install, wiring schematic and completed harness to help highlight the modification. All in I spent $25-$30 for everything and to the untrained eye, you would think everything is stock.
System works great and with it still being the newest toy, I have been turning off the engine and coasting into parking spots just to use it (LOL!!).
Components we pieced together for the kit:
- 2010-12 Chevy Cruze pressure switch & dual check valve sub-assembly
- Vacuum pump is used across multiple OEM’s and years and they all have the same connector so nothing unique with the one we ended up getting
- 2012-20 Dodge Journey mounting bracket since it looked like it would fit the best with minimal modifications(I think mid-teens Caravans also use the same mounting bracket)
After looking around the engine bay for a bit, we decided to remove the ABS plate under the brake booster (my Jeep didn’t come with option) and that open area under the plate turned out to be perfect (at least we thought) for mounting the pump and relay. We needed to modify the mounting bracket a bit but nothing serious. We were also able to use existing holes in the bracket for mounting. Only had to drill one hole in the body and used j-clips instead of nuts to tighten everything down.
Signal power was spliced into the purge solenoid circuit (looking for a switched ignition signal) and integrated into the existing harness loom that runs over the driver side fender wheel well and down to the vacuum pump.
I have included a number of pictures below highlighting the install, wiring schematic and completed harness to help highlight the modification. All in I spent $25-$30 for everything and to the untrained eye, you would think everything is stock.
System works great and with it still being the newest toy, I have been turning off the engine and coasting into parking spots just to use it (LOL!!).
