well I just about have the motor and trans finished in my 56 olds 88 and Im going to do my brakes before I stick it in. I bought a master rebuild kit for the brakes. Ive been seeing alot of olds with the master cylinder mounted on the fire wall. so my question is WHY are you guys doing that vs rebuilding the factory powerbreaks? I have everything to rebuild my factory booster and I also have master and booster to hang on the fire wall. which one you you go with and why? Thanks for the help.
In those days a lot of cars used the Bendix Treadlevac brake booster. These can fail totally even if they have been rebuilt. This leaves you with NO brakes at all except the handbrake or emergency brake. The pedal just goes to the floor with no warning. There is no direct replacement because of their peculiar design. So the best alternative is to convert to a more modern master on the firewall. If your car has a Treadlevac unit, best change to a modern design for safety.
Si, this is verdad ese. My '60 has the Delco master cylinder. I'm still thinking of going with a newer dual res. power booster tho. Stopping 2 tons w/one pot makes me nervous, esp. with my kids in the car.
Go with a modern brake system,...Well worth the effort, and besides,...you can't put a price tag on safety,............ 4TTRUK
Plus some of the components on these archaic systems are triple the price (or more) of their more modern counterparts. Bob
I rebuilt my front brakes on my 55 88 from the MC all the way down to the drums. I still was not happy with what I had and, have just finished installing the disk conversion from Scarebird. You use the your spindles and over the counter parts and can install it in just a few hours. your MC will work with it but Scarebird offers a bracket so you can use a Wilwood dual MC in the same mount as original and you can mount the dual reservoir on the firewall or on the MC. At a minimum get a new MC! I rebuilt my old one first and kept having problems until I bought a new one. Also replace your old rubber hoses with new and be ready to replace at least one of the old steel lines, they rust and you will twist and crimp them when replacing hoses and the MC.
ok well I think you guys have made up my mind for me. the kiddo will be riding alot with me. will a brake booster and mc work off a late model disc brakes on the front? my olds will still have drum brakes or do I need to buy a new mc. I have no idea when it come to brakes so please talk to me like im a 5 yr old thanks
I've done this in the past on quite a few cars that already had the hanging pedals and firewall mounted master. I made a trip to the local friendly boneyard and selected a suitable donor to pirate parts out of. Luckily I never had to too much surgery on them. It all depends on how your mechanical skills are and how able you are to make things up as you go along. You are probably best getting a already-made kit which may be a little more $$ up front but a lot less headaches in the execution. Scarebird is the first place I'd go for help. Bob
I had a 56 Oldsmobile Holiday with the stock brake system it was a pain in the ass to fix. The vacume brake system has a power vac, and if that goes bad you are looking at spend $600 for a rebuild. The mastercylender is also under the car which made it a pain to get too. I had a bad vacume leak and the spring in the booster was bad. Cost me $600 to rebuild and it still had problems. Go with a modern mastercylender.
PM Sir Woosh about this, or try the search. He did a post some time ago on converting a 55 Olds over to a hanging pedal. I would go all out, using disc brakes. The extra stopping power may be the difference between a collision and a close call.
Thanks for the plug Belair. I have two 1955 Oldsmobiles. One with a completely stock (new) brake system, and the other is late model on the firewall. Hate to lose the stock system on the one as I wanted to keep it as original as possible. But it IS a worry and a pain just to reach over and down simply to check the fluid level. I simply take the summer ventilation box off the firewall on the drivers side and plate it over to hold a dual power brake set up. The latest one is a 77 Olds unit with a swinging pedal from a 68 Delta. Just a little trim to fit. I notched just above the pedal for a little better floor clearance. I plumbed to the GM disc brakes on a newer subframe, but would do the same for all drums and use the appropriate proportioning valve. I've had this last set up on the strip, dirt track, road race coarse and over 14K of semi wicked driving without any alarm so far. P.S. Oh yeah, the funnels coming off the firewall are ramming air to the carb instead of the interior now. The Mr. Gasket bird catcher is just a fancy air box.
http://www.streetrodgarage.com/1955oldsdiscbrakeconversionkit.aspx found this set up and called them, what do you guys think? I do not want the discs so they said they will break it down and sell me piece by piece, waiting to see what kind of deal he has. if its overpriced I will be stoping in at oreillys when I get off work and piece it together myself. but Im glad someone is making the stuff the the olds.
You are really better off using the disc/drum master in that kit for your drum/drum system, as it has an obviously larger front brake chamber (so there's no confussion on what port goes to the fronts), and allows for a disc upgrade in the future without changing masters. Just add a 10 lb inline residual to the fronts, and one to the rear drums if the rear brake master port does not have one internally behind the seat. If and when you add front discs, just remove the front residual.
Generally when you go to a firewall mount it's for ease of construction and ease of maintenance over the under-floor mount. Plus I believe the Olds, like the Pontiac, is more complicated to try to do what they do on 54-back Chevys (on those, the master also has the pedal pivot, so the most common conversion guts the master, mounts a late model master on a bracket behind it, and uses a long rod all the way through the gutted original to operate the new one). With the under-floor location you need check valves, may need to set up a remote fill, and of course you have to crawl under to work on it at all. On the firewall, you can just run a factory prop valve, you can bleed it like any other vehicle, and you don't have to be on your back to get to the thing. As long as you scare up the frame junction block from a drum-drum car, you can use most any drum-drum master (I'd start with like '68 Olds full size, or Chevy 1/2 ton pickup) and those are usually cheap at a parts store. Olds like Pontiac has part of the heating/ventilation system on the firewall, but those things don't care where they are, so don't be afraid to relocate it. As for a pedal, most anything will work - you can either measure the distance from firewall to lower dash rail and try and find one either just right, or too long and trim to fit, or what I would do is get one out of a 96-back Chevy van. They just have a little square box and then you can just add a couple of 1/2" or so steel rods as braces out to the bottom of the dash. (similar to the ones a lot of dashes have underneath connecting said rail to the firewall). 97-up vans will also work, but the pedal is offset to put the master way out to the left. The firewall side bolt pattern is all the same, and will work with a booster or without.
well with that said maybe I will go back to my first plan and cheapest. I have everything out a a 90 astro van that I bought for the driveline and figured that Id better keep a few other things, so I took everything out of it I still would like to have the kit that I posted before. for the mc/bb and firewall plate it is $345 plus the ride. but money is tight and I allready have everything under that damn tree that is going to be there. so I would be easyer to use what I have insted of asking for forgiveness in 7 to 10 days
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