Brass Proportioning Valve HELP!!!!!

[TURNA]

I see the new replacement valves are brass.

Any benefit to this????

Any downfalls????

I am re- doing my lines I have a new brass one should I use it or keep the old cast one???

 

[JST A 6]

Actually from what I've read about the proprtioning valves on our cars I'd rather have the brass one. And some of them came from the factory with a brass one; it just depends on who supplied them to GM at the particular time your car was manufactured. Here's a quote I just dug up from the 1-25-08 edition of the Kirban Inner Circle (yeah, I actually save 'em all in their own little folder in Outlook:biggrin:

Last fall, as many of you remember, I attended the huge swap meet held in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. One of the major companies specializing in brake-related items had a brass brake proportioning valve on display. I knew that it looked either exact or darn close to what was used on our Turbo Regals, so I bought one. I sent it off to Richard Clark to run some pressure checks on it and to install it on one of his cars that he drives. I knew from the application that it was for a front disc brake setup with rear drum brakes in the rear. Richard recently reported his findings… after two months of testing, it performs like it should.
All the fittings were exactly correct and it was a direct fit.

What some of you may not realize is, back when the cars were new, GM used 4 different suppliers for this part. It was not uncommon for GM to use several different suppliers, but I think this was unusual to have 4 different suppliers. The manufacturers were Bendix, Delco, Kelsey, and Weatherhead.

This is not a part that would normally fail, but the problem is, only the Weatherhead brand was all-brass construction. The other 3 I mentioned above were not, and as a result they turn to rust! The next time your pride and joy is on a lift, check it out as rust can spell problems down the road, as you can imagine.

This brake proportioning valve sits under the driver’s floor pan, approximately where the floor starts to curve upward. It’s about the size of your closed fist.
You will see it, since the brake lines go to it. Having had several GNXs, we have seen first hand that some of them received the ones that turn to rust. With just
1 out of 4 suppliers manufacturing the valve in brass, the odds are against your car having a brass one.
You may have been lucky to receive yours when Weatherhead was the main supplier. This proportioning valve fits all 1982 thru 1987 Regals V6 and Turbo V6 models.

No matter how careful you are with your car, because of its location, if it’s not made in brass, it probably has turned to rust by now. As for confirming my facts, in my Buick library collection I have a fairly rare Buick booklet entitled “Parts Identification and Inspection Guide.” It has a Turbo logo on it. It shows the various parts for our cars and how to decode the system they used on the date code that was put on the various parts. It is a pretty rare booklet, since I have never seen another one for sale. The booklet listed the
4 suppliers we mentioned for the brake proportioning valve.

Going by memory, there may have been a Service Bulletin of some sort concerning the brake proportioning valve and the rust issue. But, to my knowledge, there never was an actual recall like GM had on the brake switch.
GM discontinued the brake proportioning valve about a year ago.

With the knowledge we have today, we know the Turbo Regals had brake problems in almost every area; the brake bowl, the brake switch, and the proportioning valves.

 

[TURNA]

ok great thank you for your help

 

[just plain john]

Anyone have a source or a part number for the brass p valve?

 

[incubus2432]

When I checked supporting vendors I couldn't find one since I was also swapping to rear disc so I turned to ebay.......I forget which seller or how much I paid but here's a link to one that should work for ya'.....

 

[incubus2432]

:redface: .....and here's the link......

GM Disc/Drum Combination Proportioning Valve Street Rod:eBay Motors (item 280347541104 end time May-28-09 22:27:11 PDT)

 

[TurboBuRick]

Brian at Gbody has them. Not original GM but they are brass.

If you can find a new GM one, plan on paying out the nose.

 

[JST A 6]

I thought Kirban had them too but their website has been down all day. Wanted to order some new rear springs from them but decided to go with GBodyparts instead. Don't know why I had to order them today with it being a holiday weekend and all; guess I just wanted to git 'r done...

 

[Dennis Kirban]

kirban 2 cents worth

Yes us and G body carry them they are an aftermarket reason no GM part number Gbody and mine are the exact same....

dumb luck I stumbled on the aftermarket version and had Richard Clark test it to be certain application would work on our cars...plus it looks 100% identical to the GM unit....

Be sure to flush your brake fluid as well.....if it looks like pepsi cola its dirty...

not sure why our website is down...I am sure it will be up again don't trust your bookmark as we changed our website about 2 months ago to include everything..

kirbanperformance.com

denniskirban@yahoo.com

PS I know we have them in stock....actually sell quite a few of them also the flex stainless hoses for the front calipers.....

 

[TURNA]

great thanks to all for your help

 

[JST A 6]

not sure why our website is down...I am sure it will be up again don't trust your bookmark as we changed our website about 2 months ago to include everything..

kirbanperformance.com

Yeah I changed my bookmark when I first read about it in the Inner Circle...even tried just typing the above URL in manually and it still didn't work... Like I said I don't know why I didn't just wait until Tuesday and call Christina; just having an attack of PAS (Parts Acquisition Syndrome) lately

 

[charlief1]

Thanks for the link to evilbay. He also has the one for a 4 wheel disc set up that I'll need in a few months.