Gimme a Brake (and Clutch)…
When the '50 Chevy pickup first arrived at the shop we found that some work had been done to upgrade the brake system but a lot was still missing. A new dual reservoir master cylinder (much safer than the original single rez setup) and shiny vacuum assist power booster were loosely bolted to the cab floor (rather than the frame). A disc brake conversion from Speedway Motors was also loosely bolted to the front spindles - though some bits were missing. Conspicuously M.I.A. were any kind of brake or clutch linkages.
Some parking brake (e-brake) bits were found in boxes but the main wiring harness had been routed through a cab hole intended for that mechanism.
Hmmmm... We're not sure what the builder had in mind or planned to do but, once again, our donor chassis came to the rescue for much needed for parts (Yaaaaay)!
The entire brake/clutch pedal assembly and mounting bracket were removed. In the photo below you can make out the tiny, single reservoir brake master cylinder they used back in the day. Since there was only one reservoir, if you got a leak anywhere in the system, you'd lose stopping power - front and rear.
After excavating through decades of grease and dirt we're able to get everything apart and cleaned up.
We've installed new bronze bushings inside each arm pivot but there is so much wear on the pivot shaft for the clutch pedal we may do a little machine work. The bushings will then be reamed to size so there is no excess side to side slop. Excess slop leads to pedals scraping and screeching through the holes in the cab floor.
While inspecting the disc brake conversion in the front from Speedway Motors, not only did we find that bits were missing, but the original installer did not change out the inner bearing race (cup) as instructed.
The kit uses 1970-1977 Camaro disc brake rotors and calipers (or other GM A-body models of the era). They include an adaptor for the spindles, bearings, and seals but you're supposed to remove the inner race from the Camaro rotor hub and replace it with a different one. This wasn't done and consequently, the rotor wouldn't fit quite as far onto the spindle as it should.
The correct #68110 bearing races were obtained and driven into the back of each brake rotor hub. A grease seal will top it off.
We'll show how these parts and pieces come back together on the chassis in a future post, so stay tuned!