Brakes

[67440Dodge]

Since Jeff was doing his front end, I decided it was time to redo the brakes on my car are what I put on my 66 back in 2003 before they made them. Never had any problem with them, had firm pedal but figured time to redo them.  I did it before you could get lot of this stuff repopped, so spent day in junkyard..    Put in a small bore MC and a prop valve for the rear since they didn't make distribution blocks for front disk setup yet.

Took MC out drained it. While it looked clear at first, once I poured rest into pan, it was lot of rust stuff around. 

     

Tried to seperate the pushrod from the master cylinder..glad there wasn't a core on it..

   

Found out new MC's don't come with the pushrod bushing anymore.  Luckily Detroit Muscle had them and didn't rake me over coals for shipping

   

Fronts still had lot of meat on them...  but even with the heavy duty police interceptor pads in them, it was still lot of effort to stop. 

   
   

Backs were dry, but wasn't going to take chance. Bought some smaller bore wheel cylinders and put them in. Taking them out because the bleeder screws are metric and despite being a smaller WC overall, the screws were almost 2x longer than stock ones. 

   
     

Still had firm pedal despite fact inner seals were leaking by.

   
   

Left all hoses detached, and blew out lines to try and get most old fluid out.

I had been hearing a bang from right rear when backing out of driveway and could never find it, always thought it was sway bar binding..  think it was something else..

   

Wanted to replace the Wilwood proportioning valve but the one I got the adjustment screw flopped around like old lady strip night at the bar so just blew bunch brake clean thru it and put back on..

Waiting for parts to finish front up.. and have to get new bleeder pump.. Mityvac does not stand test of time..

[67r/t4speeder]

This rotor looks in really bad shape, or is it just the picture?

[67440Dodge]

They are old like rest of system,  .. plus the pads are meant for a Diplomat police car so they grip pretty good.. they could be cut because they were from the era you could still cut them.

this what they looked like when I put them on Crusty Rusty in 02.. big improvement over the drums, esp since they had 2 deep grooves in them from rivets along with a matching set in the shoes

   

[theman440]

Mike,
Your spring bolt in installed bacwards. The bolt head should be on the frame rail side (for safety reasons)

[67440Dodge]

Yup.. good eye.. had no choice at time.

[67440Dodge]

Finally got the correct inner race...  the bearing kit had the correct Timken bearing, but the race was smaller than should have been.  Here's what happens when anger management classes don't work..

   

Original A-body spindles... even took the bent backing plates when I pulled them out of boneyard..

   

New backing plates

   

Tool made to get bearing cap to stay on as they are repops and slightly larger than stock, only way to get them to seat all evenly was to use this and a board with a hammer

   


With 11.75 rotors and calipers.  Easy fit, didn't have to use any adjustment shims to get it even. 

   

New small bore (15/16") master cylinder. Bendix discontinued them, Got it from Auto Zone, only other one that makes it now is Right Stuff unless went with the modern plastic fluid ones.

   

New rear wheel cylinders should be here tomorrow, then comes fun of bleeding and bedding in the new fronts.

[theman440]

Mike,
Did you use the Dr Diff adapter brackets to fit those Wilwood calipers?

[67440Dodge]

Mike,
Did you use the Dr Diff adapter brackets to fit those Wilwood calipers?

I actually bought the Stage 2 plus kit from him minus the spindles and master cylinder.  It was the most complete kit I've ever bought, even came with new washer/nut/lock/cotter pin/bearing cap.  Only thing I had to supply was brake fluid. 

Went with his setup over a Wilwood one because if something happens to the rotors or bearings, I can go into any parts store and get one off the shelf