Help with power brake conversion.

[clusterbuster]

Haven't been on the forum for quite some time now. I am in the midst of converting my sedan manual drum brakes over to power. I first bought an 8" booster, master and pedal bracket from our fall Pennsylvania Carlisle car swap meet. Brought them home and nothing fit.The booster wouldn't clear the exhaust manifold and the pedal conversion bracket wouldn't mate up to booster properly. Also the pedal rod was too short to fasten to the pedal itself. I boxed everything up except the master cylinder and sent it back and bought a 7" booster and pedal conversion bracket which clears the manifold nicely. I understand that I have to have some clearance between the booster plunger rod and the master cylinder plunger. Any know how much clearance and how to go about getting it? I am going to start tomorrow with the installation. Out of the two kits I have bought, none had a printed word of instruction. Thanks in advance. Cluster

[Ford Blue blood]

Ideal would be no play, not under pressure, just no play on the rod from the booster to the master cylinder, 1/32" between the pedal and the booster.  This is with everything at rest, engine off.

If the rod between the booster and master cylinder is adjustable you can set it by looking in the master cylinder at the very bottom there are ports for the fluid to get to the piston.  Look in them and you can see the piston.  Shorten (or lengthen as needed) the rod untill the piston does not move when you bolt down the master cylinder.

Make sure the return spring that is wrapped around the brakes pedal pivot is seated as it should be in the bracket assembly and adjust the length of that push rod to get the 1/32" play.

[clusterbuster]

Thanks Blue Blood. Apparently you have been down that road and learned a thing or two about it. I have the unit all bolted down and had to lengthen my two lines leading to the master cylinder.When I bolted the master to the booster there was no pressure like it would have if the push rod was adjusted out too far. I will use your tips to check the piston movement etc. My brake pedal does have a slight amount of play, so I think that is okay. Thanks again for the good info. Some day when I learn how to post some pictures of the work I have been doing on the car, I will post some. Thanks again.  Cluster.

[clusterbuster]

Finished up the power brake conversion and proceeded to bleed the brakes and had good signs when bleeding, as both rear and front had good pressure pushing out the fluid into my one man bleeder cup. This was with the engine running. After bleeding, I have a good full pedal almost to the top and it is stopping good. There was no need to adjust the booster push rod. I have heard that some have had the booster build up pressure after the vehicle has been driven and has locked up the brakes. Guess that is where the clearance factor is that I have read about. Good luck to anyone changing over to a booster,as it can be a challenge. Both pedal rods with both kits were too short to reach the pedal.They cant tell me that is just my car because when I changed over to a dual manual master cylinder a year ago, the pedal rd from the master to the pedal fit perfect. T

[clusterbuster]

Was finishing up the last of the reply and it posted on it's own somehow. Was about to say that the pedal bracket kit comes with two size flat rods, and both were too short. I took the longest one and cut the pedal end off and spliced the short one too the long one. I did the splicing by drilling 5/16" holes through both of them and bolting  them in two places with grade 8 bolts and nuts. I also drilled 1/8" holes through the nuts and bolts and put in 1/8" cotter pins. You just have to be careful that the splice is not too close to the firewall where the pedal rod bottoms out.

[ROKuberski]

Can you tell me where you got your boost unit?

I've located one on eBay and the guy says it will fit.  I just want to make sure that I have the minimum brain damage with this project.

This is the one that I found.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221290160453?item=221290160453&viewitem=&sspagename=ADME:X:RTQ:MOTORS:1123&vxp=mtr

Here are his comments to my question.
------------------------------
Hello,
Fitment is always a concern for these old Fairlanes. The reason I send 2 separate sets of brackets is because, it is not uncommon to have to play with things a little bit to make them work.

I have sold dozens of these kits and have not heard of anyone having trouble after I started including the second set of brackets. One of the brackets will work for you.

My recommendation is to dry fit the unit up to your firewall when it arrives. If it does not look like it will work, then you can return it for a full refund.

Kind regards,

Tom
-----------------------

[clusterbuster]

Tom,
I bought mine on E bay from Auto City Classics Inc in Minnesota. The one that you are looking at on E bay was not on there when I bought, as the price is better than Classic. There are a couple of problems with installing these units I have found. The first being enough clearance between the exhaust manifold and the booster. My engine is the 272 V8. You have to use the one like you looked at with the 7" booster. The 8" booster will definitely not fit. Even with using the 7" inch booster, mine only has about an 1/8 clearance between the exhaust manifold, and I had to shim the side of the outer bracket where it meets the firewall to get that. There is plenty of side play on the pedal rod so shimming does not have any problems with getting a straight enough push on the brake pedal rod. The next problem was the pedal rod that attaches to the brake pedal was too short. I spliced mine in a safe manner using both pedal rods supplied with the kit. My post explained how I did that. It is possible that the pedal rod might fit your car,all I know that it did not fit my Custom 300 sedan. When the engine was running in my 272,the manifold did not hit the booster when accelerating. Motor mounts are good. If you need any thing else about the conversion, just let me know.  Don

[clusterbuster]

Sorry, got your name wrong. Was reading too fast. Let me know how you make out. By the way, my kit only came with one bracket. Wouldn't hurt to call Classics@1 800 828 2212 and ask for Tim.  He seems to know his stuff on brakes.

[ROKuberski]

Thanks for the rapid response.  I looked at the Classis's website and their eBay ads, but did not find a boost unit for my car.  However, the one's they listed on eBay are $199.

Anyway, the ad that I found is likely where I will buy my unit. 

I dug around in the car today and it appears that the shift linkage is also real close to the location of the boost unit.  Did you have any problems with that?

Now the big question.  Do you have noticeably less pedal effort?  My car stops fine, but it does take quite a bit of a push.  I guess we are all wimps having used power brakes for as long as we can remember.  I have considered disk brakes, but I have a new set of 14" wide white wall radials.  Yes, I know you can find 14" rims that will accept disk brakes, but that will have to wait for a while.

Rich

[hiball3985]

Look closely at the description, it says AUTO TRANS so there could be a clearance problem with the linkage.
"1952-72 Ford Full size vehicles, 6 cylinder or 8 Cylinder Auto transmission manual Power Brake conversion Kit."

[clusterbuster]

Rich,
There is absolutely not a problem with shift linkage on mine, and mine is standard shift. The only issue that would be possible is when the car is put into reverse or park with an automatic.  On mine there is at least 4-5 inches clearance when put into reverse. The steering column is far to the right of the pedal- booster bracket. I have looked at a lot of the units before I bought mine, and not one mentioned anything about shift linkage. The only warning was 312 and 292 engines would not adapt to these units because of manifold clearance, but they were all 8" booster units. My engine is the 272 and an 8" booster would not fit despite what they claimed. Sounds like your supplier has a good system with sending out two brackets. Let me know how you make out and if you need anymore info feel free to contact me.  Don

[ROKuberski]

Thanks for all of the comments.  The added bracket he supplies raises the center line of the master cylinder 1.5".  I think it will work for me.  I've gone ahead and ordered it and will report back with how it all works out, including pictures.

Rich

[hiball3985]

I forgot to ask if you ever solved the vibration issue? Also I'm a big fan of 3 ft between the rails, probably not many here will understand that. I've already wasted half my morning watching the Chama cams 

[CableguyJJS3]

I'll toss my .02 in here for what its worth to you guys. This is just my own personal experiences with my Ranchero, so I can't speak to anything else. When I did the 4 wheel disc swap on that car, I used what they told me was a manual master out of a Granada, no booster. I installed a prop valve with a built in adjuster and built in hydraulically activated pressure switch for the brake lights. The car stopped so well and with such little amount of pedal effort, I wasn't building enough brake fluid pressure to trip the pressure switch and wasn't turning on the brake lights. I had to go into the car and install a mechanical switch directly on to the brake pedal arm in order to get the lights work. Now I don't know if this is unique to my setup and system, but with as good as the stopping power was, and with as little amount of pedal pressure that was required to get there, I see zero need for a booster of any kind. Now if your still running drums I doubt that would be the case, but I'm just saying is all. With the 4 wheel discs, I don't see a need for it. But again just my experience and opinion. 

[RICH MUISE]

I forgot to ask if you ever solved the vibration issue? Also I'm a big fan of 3 ft between the rails, probably not many here will understand that. I've already wasted half my morning watching the Chama cams 

LOL...I may spend half of my afternoon trying to figure out what "3 ft between the rails" means...never mind wth a Charma cam is.