I’ve had my 70E for about 4 years and the brakes have never been what I think they should be based on owning lots of Volvos, including a 72 1800E. (that I still drive now and again and which has a rock hard brake pedal.)

It’s not that the pedal is mushy, or that the brakes don’t work. In a panic, they lock up and stop fine. It’s just that the it seems I have to press harder on the pedal than should be necessary and the pedal travels too far before getting full braking effect.

The first thing I did was rebuild the rear calipers and fit braided SS lines all around. No difference. Of course this entailed a complete flush/replacement of the brake fluid. No difference. Recently I rebuilt the master cylinder (using a PBR kit), not one iota of difference. In the process I made sure the engagement between the booster piston and the master cylinder rod was correct per the factory manual. It was.

So, over a period of four years, there really has been no substantive change. They’re not getting worse, but I just don’t have the hard, instantaneous pedal I feel should have.
I’m going to be rebuilding the front calipers over the summer and putting in new pads, but they don’t leak and I doubt that’s going to make any real difference. I probably should suspect the booster (holds vacuum and check valve is fine), but shouldn’t these things either fail, or get progressively worse?

I’d appreciate hearing from anyone with creative thinking on this. Maybe theres some adjustment neededbetween the pedal and the booster? Creative thinking DOES NOT include suggesting I bleed the system. It is not an air problem. Pedal doesn’t have to be pumped to work. Thanks