All,
I bought my first Camaro in June. (67 SS 350 vert, non-pwr front discs.) On the drive home the brakes felt spongy. I got home and checked the master cylinder and the front reservoir was low. I enlisted the wife for pump and hold duties (the car) and began bleeding. Pump, pump, pump, bleed, bleed, bleed, and no respectable results. I call the buddy who sold me the car, He said to wedge something between the firewall and rear pin of the metering valve to prevent it's moving during bleeding. PRESTO ! All is fine, looked for leaks, none detected. A summer of top down fun ! Now, fast forward to yesterday. I go to pull out of the garage and the brakes have lost some pedal. I check the cylinder and the front is low. I fill it and pump. I found fluid coming from the rear "pin" area of the metering valve. I located what I believe is a good replacement at Inline Tube. (item PR114 @ $ 89 ---seems most retailers call them proportioning valves.) Now the question/s. Should I buy, install, wedge, bleed and enjoy or should I be looking at combo and /or adjustable models ? Do convertibles know when summer is over ?:confused:

The retailers call them proportioning valves because they don't understand the difference. All it does is hold off fluid flow to the front system until the rear system sees 30-40 psi (to allow the rear shoes to overcome the pullback springs and move out to the drum surfaces). The repro works fine, or your original can be rebuilt; Karp's Brake in California, (909) 985-0800 rebuilds them for about $65.00. Keep the rubber boot - they're not reproduced. :thumbsup:

..... Keep the rubber boot - they're not reproduced. :thumbsup:

Hey John, I saw Heartbeat City selling the boot. Pretty sure.

The hold off valve in my 67 gave me trouble for years. It would suck in air and I would have to bleed the front brakes on a regular basis. About three years ago it got so bad I could no longer bleed all of the air out of the system so I removed the valve and temporarily installed a short steel line from the MC directly into the distribution block so I could drive the car. To my surprise the brakes felt better than they had in years! My car stops just fine without the troublesome valve in the system.

I do plan on rebuilding and installing my original hold off valve someday but it is not a high priority.

Heartbeat City does have replacement seals, I bought one and it seals too!
I also bought a rubber boot through NPD. Probably not prefectly accurate to the OE it's replacing, but good enough to keep dirt away. :thumbsup:

http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/5598/brakes032xq6.th.jpg (http://img235.imageshack.us/my.php?image=brakes032xq6.jpg) http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/1273/brakes028cm5.th.jpg (http://img235.imageshack.us/my.php?image=brakes028cm5.jpg)

Thanks Guys,
I recieved the metering valve yesterday. It did come with a boot. My question is whether wedging the pin to restrict it's movement during bleeding is the correct proceadure.
Thanks, Jimmy

If you bleed with the good ol' pump the pedal method you don't need to worry about it, as that method creates enough line pressure to open the valve. If you use a pressure bleeder, there's a good chance you'll need hold the pin in, as pressure bleeders typically don't create enough pressure to open the valve. A radiator hose clamp wrapped around the valve to hold the button in is a trick I used. You might have to remove the bracket to get the hose clamp around the valve.

Thanks Al,
I'll give the clamp a try.
Jimmy