Hi all, I converted my front drum brakes to Wilwood disc brakes on my standard 1967. The brakes are still kind of mushy and I’d like them to be more responsive for bay area traffic. I called summit up and got the 1.125" Wilwood master cylinder, Wilwood proportioning valve, fittings and a Leed 9" dual diaphragm power booster.
It doesn’t look like the booster will work. When doing some poking around and a fit check it looks like the booster won’t go on as there are welded nuts on the under dash steering column bracket and the booster has 4 screws/posts coming off the back?
Is there a drop in brake booster for a manual brake car? Is the 9" dual diaphragm too powerful? Should I skip the booster and just do the Wilwood master cylinder and proportioning valve?
Hi
First - about mushy brakes, are you sure they are bled correctly ?
I’m currently working on converting my manual drums to power disc at the moment, with a leed conversion kit - see links to threads on this forum more more details. I think mine comes with an 8 inch booster so may be different.
The pedal hanger is different for manual and power, you either have to change it or drill the threads on 3 of the holes (keeping the top right one as is). You also have to drill an extra hole at the bottom, there should be a dimple on the firewall from factory where it should go.
In case you’re still working this one out, make sure you are using a booster that was designed for the brake pedal in your car. I.E., don’t try to make a stock power booster work with a manual pedal like the p.o. of my poor cougar did. There are a lot of things that you can make work, but most induce weird angles that stress seals and pistons in ways that WILL lead to early failure. The safest way to go is to watch all of the WCCC videos, then replace with either an entire aftermarket setup (designed for the manual/power pedal you already have in the car) or replace the manual pedal in the car with a stock power pedal (they use the same pedal box, just a different pivot point) and use a stock booster. Like I said, there are a lot of ways to make brakes work, but not all of them are right or safe.