I want to know what types of slave cylinders can be used with what types of master cylinders. How is the throw of the slave cyl adjusted? Opinions on the benifits/ drawbacks to the hyd set-up. Any pics anyone care share will be appreciated.
There's no real adjusting other than on the pushrod between the pedal and M/C piston if you have some adjustment there, and basically you want to adjust all the slack out so the piston in the M/C starts to move as soon as the pedal starts to move. If the M/C bore and slave cylinder bore are the same, you will in effect have a 1:1 ratio, that is the slave cylinder piston will travel the same distance the m/c piston travels. If the m/c bore is bigger than the s/c bore, the s/c piston will travel further than the m/c piston but you will have a harder pedal than you would if they were the same bore. If the m/c bore is smaller than the s/c bore, the s/c piston will travel a shorter distance than the m/c piston travels, but you will have a softer pedal. The main advantage of a hydraulic system is that you can bend brake line tubing to clear obstacles a lot easier than you can fabricate a mechanical linkage to get around obstacles. If you're working with tight confines in an older/smaller vehicle, a Rube Goldberg mechanical linkage may take up more space than you can spare.
The Jalopy Journal
