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Dual action booster and front disk upgrade

I have been followng past posts on the booster upgrade conversion for some years now, always thinking of changing mine to a dual booster front disk conversion.

With these past existing posts I know of the panther conversion project and with that I feel that a 7" dual booster is just not enough for a panic or hard stop on a 4,500lb. Car.
With more cars and people walking on the road today I am wanting to do and upgraded braking system.

I currently have my motor out and thinking of doing an up high firewall mount with an 11" dual action booster.I can get away with this mount fitting and leaving my air vent intact having the straight 8 leaving some pedal fabrication and thats ok.

Also with the front disk conversion I do know there are kits out there for a price but, does anyone know of any common domestic autos that can be used weather slightly fabricated or not. I once talked with an old packard guy with his 56 executive that swapped out with a 1970's Ford Bronco with leaving only a slight difference in the king pin to be milled.
I can no longer find him to ask...

I am only doing this swap for one of a few reasons; as our population and clutterness grows everyday around us i feel it is needed for improved stopping, easier access I am not going for any original points on the car but I'd like for it to be around in the family for another 60 years....
Any inputs are welcome....

Does the car currently have power brakes???

It does, the Estimatic BTV. The last rebuild on the BTV held up about ten years now i did have the pedal go to the floor again with no brakes. There is no fluid leakage showing from an outside viewing. I just pulled the BTV yesterday it still has vacume and did push fluid out of the cylinder tomorrow ill open up the booster canister to see whats going on in there..

If there was still fluid in the reservoir and cylinder and no external leaks, if pedal went to the floor then the only place it could have gone was back into the reservoir thru a poorly sealing compensating valve. That valve failing to close at inopportune times seems to be the major issue with BTVs.

It will be interesting to see if there is much in the vacuum side. Unless there was a total failure of a seal which should have sucked the reservoir dry then doubt you will find enough on that side to have resulted in the failure.

Howard
I was just chatting with you on the other thread.

I did go ahead with that brake conversion, I did take photos along the way but, I lost my phone with all the durring photos I took.

I did manage to speak with that old Packard guy and we had an interesting talk and told me what to look for but, after I did a lot of searching I just went ahead and bought the Wilwood front disk conversion thru Summit.

I also did manage to incorperate a 10-3/4" dual brake booster on the firewall with an added firewall support plate. I went with a new 1-1/8" bore master cylinder and kept it to where as it comes thru the firewall positioned just perfectly but I may drop that bore down to a 1" master cylinder after testing.. (We will see) I also have a combination valve mounted to the Master/Booster.

I had also managed to keep and use the original brake pedal and did do a lot of fabrication work making the in/under the dash swing configuation wich also acts for more firewall support plus with another inside added support plate then also mounts where the steering braket mounts under the dash. (Nice and Firm)

I do still have more to go with this yet a couple of final welds on my swing pedal and to instal the front disk conversion. I did run all new brake lines "BUT" I am going thru the rear drum saga she wont give! my heavy duty puller broke three times finnaly on my last try my lug bolt threds jumped, so if i ever do get these off im looking at new drums or drum. They just wont give!

I will take more pictures and put this all together in discription sometime soon and discribe what I had done.
As for the old BTV, once it was out it was put off to the side and really didnt give it another thought!

Looking forward to seeing the photos when you take some more. There have been a few firewall mounted boosters but I don't recall any with the original pedal so am particularly interested in what you do with that.

Gladly show you,

It was a lot of crawling in and out from under the dash with all this configuration but to make it short I extended the peddal stem with a 3/16" x1" flat stock and kept a pitch on the peddal shaft and fitted in fabricated pieces where the original pedal widen out and welded it all in.

When I take it back out I will weld in another flatstock along side of the one I already made. It has a bit of an elbo on it at the pitch but thats ok, it looks nice and is sturdy. you really can not see the elbo pitch being higher up.

I had also used the original swing mount mounted up in my configuration keeping a 4:1. I'm really happy with it! once that pedal is all painted it will look original..

Ok here is my brake conversion so far! my original pictures I took as I went along are lost with that phone I had, so took these today.
I will post these in stages there is still a lot to be done yet...

On the firewall engine side I first started where the wires came thru the firewall and took out the rubber insulation that the wires go thru. Found center of that opening then going towards the passenger side edge of that opening staying at midway center. Measuring 3/4" out towards the passenger side on the firewall and then 3/4" down on the firewall then made that center of my booster shaft.

I then measured 2" up and down from that point and cut that out an inch wide opening allowing 4 inches for the booster shaft to move.


At this location it lines up real nice just about 3 inches away from the insdie steering shaft on the drivers side for the pedal arm..
( I used the Original pedal and swing mount looks good but not done I ran out of weld wire today but I do have pictures of that I will be posting soon.)

I then fabricated two 3/16" steel plates Cut out for the booster shaft swing openings, as well has the drilled holes for booster mounting bolts.

This is done for both inner and outer plates for both sides of the firewall, they are made as twins working together in a sandwich effect. Supporting the firewall along with more support that i will get to soon...

I went with a 10-3/4" dual brake booster and a 1-1/8" bore master cylinder ( bore may change to a 1" we will see if its too big of a bore ) I decided to use a 1977 GMC/Chevy truck brake booster and master cyinder. (Autozone bought)

I went with this because I wanted the booster to be away from the firewall for extra room back there for wires and I will be mounting a Trans dip stick that will mount to that booster mount as you can see the stick laying up by my level and this booster has the exstention bracket that gives me that space behind the booster.

I also have a combination valve that I mounted but I am going to remount that valve as an bottom master mount so I can reconfigure in my vent tube....

Here are some pictures of the engine firewall side with my engine I had redone....

Yes the booster clears from the hood hinge about 2-3 inches, I done all this with the hinge in the closed position

Post more soon..

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Ok Howard here you are!

The Brake pedal configuration/Fabrication using the original pedal assembly and swing mount ( I tried to get up in there with my camera "but" lets say I know what im looking at under the dash but will get to that later..

The pedal I took it back out today to try and finish it but I ran out of welding wire so it is still ugly but not done.

Now after about 300 times in and out from under the dash for the proper fitting and placement of the pedal and months of doing so ( with some long breaks for back relief and get other things done)..

What I used is a 3/16" x 1" steel flatstock as an exstention for the pedal arm. it is just long and hard to find the right angle in combination with the right placement of the swing arm and booster shaft but that part is done I can't tell you what the angle is at this point but I will find that after the final install.

So I welded Two 3/16" x 1" steel flat stock side to side into the original pedal arm with the pedal at its pitch.
as well as welded in pieces of that frabricated flat stock in where the arm width opened out at to make it firm.

I weld an exstention bracket off of the pedal arm to meet up with the booster shaft as it was longer than i thought it would be but, I made it work and that it does well keeping about a 4.25:1 braking ratio... Fingers are crossed

I am posting Pictures but, as I said Its not done like I wanted to be today but it will need more welding finishing primed and painted after all that is done it will look like it belonged there

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