So, i bought the brake kit from auto city classic. It came with a power booster and master cylinder, proportioning valve, calipers, pads, rotors (slotted and drilled), hubs, bearings, hoses, caliper mounting brackets (ala Scarebird) and all other hardware.
Look forward to an upcoming review of the product whenever school allows me time to finish the neccessary preceeding work and get it installed.
it seems to be a pretty good deal considering the 554$ (+ shipping) cost.
Here are a few pictures of the parts in the kit
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Nice looking stuff :001:
Alex..thanks for posting. They only showed kits going up to '56 on their website....guess they need to update their info. Is the kit made to adapt to the stock '57 spindles, I didn't notice any spindles in the pics?
Rich
Yeah, it's just like the scarebird adapters.
Those c shaped metal things are the caliper adapters for the stock spindles.
I found this kit on eBay, it is from their eBay store but if you call them they have it.
So, I did install this kit.
Here are a few points about the install.
The spindle and caliper bracket required a small amount of grinding to fit perfectly.
The bearings which were installed in the hubs had to be changed to the others provided.
The hoses had a bit of a hard time installing in the existing mounts on the frame.
Some instructions were a little unclear and I did a little more hardline work than I needed to.
Had to get an adapter to get the 3/16" line to the back brakes to hook up to the 1/4" flare fitting on the proportioning valve.
The master cylinder and calipers are I coated and rust if not painted before install.
Everything fit nicely and looks great. Overall it was a pretty easy install.
Anybody have any questions
Just curious if the calipers are rear inlets for the hoses, or if the hoses face frontwards like the Granada calipers requiring the hose frame brackets to be relocated to in front of the control arms?
The hoses mount at the back of the calipers and the hoses mount into the original frame brackets. Although the frame brackets must be ground a hair thinner to install the hoses that are provided.
So you now have power brakes, correct? Did you ned up making all new hardlines for the front, or were you able to tie everything into exsisting lines? Do you have any pics of the setup installed on the car? Looking into doing this as well, just trying to get "all of my ducks in a row" first. Thanks!!
Mark
I didn't need to do all new hardlines. I did some new hardlines but I actually didn't need to do any, except for concerns about existing line integrity.
No pics right now, but what pics are you looking for? I could take some.
Alex, just curious how the booster / master looked bolted to the firewall. I seen they have a bracket that bolts to the bottom of the maser that holds the proportioning valve and just wondered how it looked. Did you use this bracket, or did you mount the pro. valve somewhere hidden? Any clearance issues at all? Did the Clevis rod bolt right up without any problems? Also, you said you didn't really have to reroute any of teh hardlines. You could of just bent / moved them to fit into the new proportioning valave as opposed to running a new line?
Thank you for your help. Really want to tackle this porjecy, and like to get feedback from those who have done it!
I used the provided bracket, I'm way too lazy to mount the somewhere invisible. It doesn't look factory but it's not in the way or anything. It does get pretty close to the inner fender but I don't recall it posing any problem for install. The Clevis rod worked fine and the firewall mount also worked very well. It actually would have been easily possible to bend the hardlines to fit the prop valve, although that would have the two front brakes ultimately run off one port of a two front port prop valve. Don't know what difference that makes but I didn't do it that way.
I must say the install of the brake system was the most smooth of pretty much any install I have done on my car.
I think for the money it's a great system. Looks great!
Alex...sorry, can't remember if your car was a driver. Have you been able to test the system yet? I'm curious about it's performance with the booster being so small, (wondering if it'll clear a 4.6 dohc). I'm currently planning on having to use a hydroboost unit, but I hate the looks of them. I know I could go to the pricey electro unit, but it's not in the budget. A pic of the installed booster would be great.
Thanks
Rich
Is that booster an 8" dual or a 7" dual? Rich, you might take a look at the system used on the 90s Thunderbird Super Coupe. It is a fairly compact unit, has two pressure switches and two relays, an accumulator, a pump and of course the master cylinder. Have not priced any of it out, just remeber it was nice and compact in my 90 SC.
I'll see if I can find some info. I assume it is different than the non-super coupe Birds.
Yes, the super charger eliminated vacumn.....
My car is a driver.
How does it work? It's hard to say, I didn't have a chance to check anything such as how much vacuum the engine was making and therefore I don't wish to say something which reflects on the quality of the system. It does stop, I'd say better than the original stuff. It isn't like an F1 car though.
Just out of curiousity, where did you tie in the new vacuum line for the brake booster at? Also, did the prop valve that was included seem to work ok? Is it adjustable? Thank's again for the insight on this kit. I think i'm fianlly about to pull the trigger on it!
It seems to work ok, I haven't had any weird brake stuff happening so I assume it is working.
Is it adjustable? I don't know, but I don't think it is. If it is adjustable it isn't obvious from the outside. I think it is essentially the same as a Granada prop valve.
I tied the vacuum into a 1/2" npt port on the intake. But I think my timing was crappy along with a poorly adjusted carb. It was also sharing a vacuum port with the line to the tranny, not sure if that makes a diff or not.
No problem, I'm happy my thread has helped someone. If you have specific install question if and when you buy it just let me know.
So I ordered the kit as well and it arrived on my door step as of yesterday. Where / how did you hook up your brake light switch? Did you use the one they provided and just tie it into one of the 2 front line ports and only run one line with a "T" fitting? Also, there's no way to hook up the plastic brake wanring switch on the top of the proportioning valve, is there? Do you happen to have a pic of your proportioning valve all hooked up and mounted in the car? Just curious how it looks being mounted directly below the master. Thanks again!
I did run separate lines to each front caliper, but looking back I would just run the original style Tee fitting with the pressure switch in the other prop valve port.
I can try to get a decent picture some time soon.
Don't know about the warning switch, what's that all about? I've never been big on warning switches and things like that.
There is a slider inside the proportioning (distribution block) valve that slides toward the failed portion of the system. That slider closes the warning switch to illuminate a lamp on the dash board to tell you you had a problem.
The sliders main function is to close off the failed part of the system, ie. one of the front flex line breaks, and allows the rear half of the system to work, you still have rear brakes, or vice versa.