1952-59 Ford DISC BRAKE CONVERSION

I installed a Granada front disc brake conversion on my 54 Ford. I bought complete kit, booster, calipers, spindles, master cylinder, rotors. After ***embly I can see top half of piston in caliper is above rotor. Does this sound right? I have a very hard pedal with almost no travel.

 

Shoot a picture of what you have there. What kit did you use? Is there any adjustment on the pedal rod to the booster?

 

I used a Toms Cl***ic kit I bought on Ebay. I have plenty of pedal rod adjustment.

 

You still shouldn't have any appreciable amount of the caliper piston showing above the rotor, any chance the calipers or brackets are on the wrong side? Is the booster hooked up and working? With the car not running, pump out all the air from the booster. Lay a foot on the brake pedal, start the car up and the pedal should sink at least an inch.

 

I have the same kit. Below are the pictures I took during installation. There is a bit of the piston that sticks up above the rotor, but not half like you're describing.

 

Those are the '73-76 Torino or LTD style brakes.

 

according to Tom's cl***ic's all Granada caliper look like mine, with 1/2 the piston above the rotor

 

Need bigger rotors?

 

For what it's worth, this is my Granada setup. As previously asked...are you sure the calipers haven't been switched left to right. It was many years ago, but I seem to recall the way to confirm the correct side was the position of the bleed screw.
BTW, this pic was taken just after installation...the brake lines have since been moved to in front of the control arms since the inlet faces forwards on these calipers.

 

I think the bigger concern I have now is my new 292 y-block only make 11 inch vacuum. I need 16 inches of vacuum to make my booster work

 

You might be able to get away with a vacuum canister, but if you're only pulling 11 inches you may end up needing a vacuum pump. You can get aftermarket kits for a couple hundred bucks. But a few cars used these from the factory (mid 90s Camaros come to mind), so you could possibly find one in a junk yard, or get an OEM replacement version from the parts store.

 

This is the main reason why I went without the booster. I don't know what my vacuum is going to be after the cam is in. Is there possibly a better place to pull the vacuum from, as in manifold vs carb base?

 

My booster vacuum comes from the back of a John Mummert intake manifold.

 

It shouldn't matter if its connected directly to the manifold or to the carb base, so long as you aren't using the ported vacuum port on the carb (the one you would use for vacuum advance distributors).

The manifold vac port on the carb, and a port directly in the intake manifold are both delivering manifold vacuum and should measure the same, although my understanding is connecting to an intake manifold port is usually prefered as there is less chance of a venturi effect when the throttle plates open. But a buddy of mine has his booster connected to the manifold vacuum port on his Edelbrock carb and it works perfectly.

In other words, either should work, but if you're only pulling 11 inches of vacuum, you likely won't get any better using a different vacuum port. If you do, there's probably something wrong.

 

When I did the 72 LTD discs on the front of my 56, I had the same problem. I had my brakes mounted left to right. Swapped sides and everything worked great.

 

Yup, this is a common problem. Ford and Mopar calipers can be easily swapped on wrong side. Rule of thumb on installing calipers. The bleeder valve on caliper always has to be above brake hose connection. You'll be bleeding brake fluid till tomorrow and still no brakes.