I am building a '53 Ford F-100. I've done the Volare swap up front, and have an Explorer 8.8" rear with discs, so I have 4-wheel discs. I want to run manual brakes, NOT power. I'm wondering what any of you with similar set-ups are running. Thanks! Ben
i would run thr volare master and prop. valve if you have them just leave the power booster off if you want manual brakes. make sure the prop. valve is off a car with 4 wheel disc so the distributions are right if not use an adjustable prop. valve.
I actually used a '68 Camaro 4 wheel drum M/C on my 4 wheel disc brake setup on my Rambler. I used a wilwood proportioning valve. I ended up changing the pedal ratio some to make the effort a little less -plus it helped me get to the #7 spark plug much easier!
Be careful with pad wear, you may not have enough fluid reserve with a drum master on a 4 wheel disc car. The discs take a lot more fluid to push the pistons. With 4wbd you want a master with at least an inch bore, inch and an eighth would be better. Don't know what the F-100 pedal ratio is, but without power, make sure it's at least 5:1.
That's a good point about watching the fluid level, on a daily driver I'd be more concerned (read: diligent) about checking it. As for mine, I did this 15 years ago - been fine ever since, but being a fair weather ride and not my primary one at that - it's been no problem yet. Just the same your point is a good one - anyone mixing and matching parts needs to sit down and consider the ramifications of their choices. I knew this going in and have kept an eye on it since.
I used a 69-76 corvette manual master cylinder with wilwood 4 piston superlites up front and dynalites out back. 1" bore. stock pedal feels good. Since the master is sitting higher than the calipers, I didn't need residual valves, and having bigger calipers in the front I decided to try it without a prop. valve. Seems to work just fine. I haven't locked them up or anything, but I've made some plenty hard stops without any weird pulling. They should start at about $40 for a rebuilt one at the parts store. We've got about 4500 miles on it so far.
I don't think that would be too wise as the power brake master will not accept a pushrod like the manual is designed to....just a thought
Awesome, thanks for the info guys. I think I'm going to pick up one of the corvette ones, as I already have the residual valves. I just didn't want to get stuck if I ever needed a replacement, I'd much rather get one that I can get at any autoparts store. Ben
I am running the vette 1" under the floor. 2lb valves for the discs, adjustable valve for the rears, works good without power assist. and if its mounted on the firewall, gravity is cheaper than res. valves
Your right, I've brought the same thing up before. But the funny thing is most guys here don't seem to want to hear it or heed that advise
That's a great point. I used a Corvette M/C in my '47 I asked for a "power" m/c - which to me is one with the SHALLOW piston. They gave me one with a DEEP hole (which I always thought was a manual m/c) anyways I went to 2 places and they both gave me the same thing. I then asked to see a "manual" m/c and neither had it in stock. So I took the piston out of another M/C and used it. For those running a power M/C (shallow) hole piston in a manual application would be a FOOL to ignore your advice. They're sized this way so that you can pull your pedal forward and NOT have the rod fall out!!!!! Kinda important if you have any sense at all. I just went through a similar thing on my convertible. I swapped in a "newer" m/c only to find out that it had a deep hole (which in this case I needed a shallow one even though it was manual). The origional manual M/C in this case had a shallow hole BUT!!!!! it had a special push rod and retaining clip so that when pushed your brake pedal push rod in place it snapped in and wasn't able to be pulled out. I had to machine a spacer to press into the deep hole piston to make things add up to they way they were origionally. With the spacer I could install the origional clip and keep it "right" as it was origionally designed to be. This is just one reason why I don't turn in my cores right away - you never know if you need to swipe a piece part off them.
oh, btw, the vette master has the ports opposite of most others, the port closer to the mount is for the rear, front goes to the front. I was killing myself to figure that out.
Oh, good deal, thanks for the info on the ports... that would have been my next question. Here's a different one... why does it matter which port goes to the front and rear brakes? Thanks guys! Ben
How does a posi trac on a Plymouth work? It just does. In the inner workings, one port is activated first, then the other. It will lock up the rears and you'll have little to no front brakes, or in my case, barely any brakes at all. its more complicated, but thats my understanding.
i used the master in my s-10 minus the booster and a linelock. no problems. i have drum 9inch rearend though
67-72 mustang manual master. 1" bore, "deep" hole in piston for pushrod. i used the stock pedal and pushrod. seemed to work really well.
Was this for 4-wheel discs? Does this MC have a built in proportioning valve? Residual valves? Thanks, Ben
no, its front disc, rear drum. i used a 2lb residual on the front and a 10lb residual and an adjustable proportioning vavle on the rear. the way i understand it (please jump in if im wrong here) is you could run this setup but use a 2lb residual on the rear.
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