MC and Booster Hi Guys, last few days, i went through many www sites, investigating for the most suitable parts for my disc brake/booster conversion. After all, i decided, to go with rockauto.com, as these guys have such a huge selection and hundreds of different parts for various models. And also, by adding the parts to the shopping cart, you get the correct shipping rates straight away, which are not the cheapest, but fast and reliable service makes this up, for me. As room under those AD´s close to the tranny, is pretty tight and vacuum might be a little weak as well, i decided to use a hydraulic booster instead. They seem to be a slim construction, compared to most vacuum units you see in these readily conversion kits. I found out, that 1998 GMC Sierras were equipped with these. The calipers are from the 1991 Sierra model as are the rotors. On Friday the 40lbs packet arrived and i was smiling! First i took off the drums on the front and tried the rotors. The depth seems alright, only the center bore had to be turned out a half inch, to make them fit. I prefer the rotors to be in front of the hub, this way the wheel studs are long enough for steel wheels. Today i disassembled the original mc bracket and fabricated it over, to adopt the new hydraulic unit. It took several attempts, crawling in and out of the truck, to find the best fit. To my surprise, the left over master cylinder of my El Camino goes right on this booster, with no modification needed. Hopefully the bore is suitable, but i will leave this to the day, when the truck is driveable. The pictures show the unit in and out of the rig...
Power Brakes Looking very good there . Our fleet trucks used this same hydraulic boost thing , I hate it .
Brakes, again... Hi folks, it´s been awhile, since my last post. Thought, i give you an update-I´m still at it, but summertime always drags me off, to stuff around the house also. The last few days, i gave the front brake stuff another attempt, as waiting for some paint to dry, left me with a bit of time and needing a change as well. I made a template out of a 20mm thick fiberboard, as a caliper bracket. A bit of sawing and grinding, till it fit as desired. Gladly, we have a motorized torch in our company, where you can put a drawing in, and the torch follows this on the steel plate 1 on 1. So all i had to do, put the fiberboard on a white piece of paper and feed the machine. A few minutes later, it was done. At home, a bit of grinding, to smooth it out, cutting some threads and now, it´s pretty much ready, to bolt on Here´s a few pics as off today, enjoy...
Anyone have any experience with the disc brake kits from Speedway? At $250.00 for the complete kit either 5 or 6 lug I can't find a better price anywhere. Seems like a great option but would like to hear from anyone who has tried this package. Thanks
Hi chebby, there is a complete disc brake kit readily available through various vendors, i was only to greedy, to have them ship this heavy package to Germany, as the shipping quote was a lot more, than the actual parts. Also i used the calipers and rotors from the 1988- GMC Sierras, as they are available and pretty cheap to get, even across the big pond. As far as i remember, they use parts from a different vehicle. Last but not least, the market for this kind of stuff in Europe is so small, that it´s not worth the effort. It still takes a few hours, to custom fit them for each individual vehicle, and brake parts need to be approved by German DOT, at least, if you are going to sell them to the public. For my truck, it´s no problem, i just tell them, these are from the following years, which had factory installed discs...
Bringing it up again... The last week, i installed the #2 residual valve for the front disc brakes and the adjustable proportioning valve in the rear brake line. Today the weather was just right for the first trip out of winter storage What shall i say, now the brakes are nearly perfect, short travel and the truck stops on a dime!! Well worth the effort. The rear tires were also due to be replaced, since they were used and old when i got them. Now it?s time to enjoy the truck and hope for some more trouble free miles
