10-12 years ago I built a channeled hot rod truck from a $400 '29 Plymouth 4 door sedan. I sold it to a guy who "had to have it" when it was only about 80% completed. In fact, I had never driven the truck. Last year the guy sold the truck at an estate sale and I bought it back. I am in the process of changing a few things I did back then and one of those issues is the location of the master cylinder. It is tight quarters in the cab, especially in the feet area, so I had located the master cylinder on the left side of the steering column and intended to brake it with my left foot. There is also very limited room on the firewall. Now that I have the truck back I dont like that set-up and want to move the pedal onto the right side next to the gas pedal. The only set-up I can find that is small enough to fit in the space is the Wilwood aluminum master cylinder and pedal assembly. Speedway sells them and they are not much $$. But I am concerned about using a race-intended m/c on the street. I know its a single resevoir unit and I understand the ramifications of that, but it is the only thing I can see working on the right side. Sorry for all the background, but here is my real question...some of the Wilwood brake stuff is marked "Not Intended for Highway Use". Is that just a liability statement or is there something I dont understand here?
I can't help you out with the M/C, but that turned out a lot better than I thought after reading what you started with.
I have had willwood MC on the coupe for 14 years, no issues. I run two, one for front and one for rear with a swing pedal and balance bar.
They are good quality. I would have no qualms using them and have sold a few. In fact, I am putting one on my Bonneville car, I trust it that much. Wilwood, Tilton, CNC etc.............all good brands.
As time goes on insurance company's are finding more and more reasons to weasel out of claims, my worry has always been that if you get in a accident , related or not ... You have brake parts on your car that are not DOT the only differance between race car AN flexible lines and DOT ones is about $25 and a sticker that says approved... Might never be a problem... But you get that one case... With that one lawyer... It could be... Wilwood covers their ass by saying " off road use only" so liability falls on the installer and driver Hotrodders think its cool to have race parts on their car so they don't think about it that way... But we are a society where everyone needs to blame somebody ....and the evil hotrodder burning fossil fuel can become a great patsy Btw isn't the bore just aluminum?i would expect some wear after time unless they offer a steel sleeved version
I can't think of any reason it wouldn't work,You could use a conventional master cylinder placed further back and fabricate a longer rod to activate it. HRP
I called up tech support at Wilwood and told them about my '36 pickup build, I'm running a Hydraulic clutch and drum brakes and asked what they would recommend. The guy I spoke with had great product knowledge and I am confident the setup I purchased will do a better job than anything I could have pulled from a wrecking yard or assembled from off shelf Chevy parts. The only drawback was that I purchased direct from Wilwood that day and later found the same setup at Summit for $40 less and free shipping. Lesson learned: do home work and then go shopping for better prices.
One of the masters that Wilwood sells looks just like a Chrysler part. Have heard it is identical....
Hey thanks to all for the feedback. I am going with the Wilwood since it is small enough to work where I have the space.
My view would be that the $40 is a very cheap price to pay for expert advice. And that purchasing from Wilwood as you did was a fine "thank you for the assistance". Purchasing from elsewhere after getting tech advice like that is a huge slap in the face, and may make Wilwood less likely to help you (and others) in the future. Such is gratitude in these years... Cosmo
funning a single circuit wilwood on my 56 for 7 years now, no issues, have a dual pedal setup on my 31 with 2 masters, both work flawlessly and have always done everything I could ask for. Main thing is getting size right for what you need. Same with brake hoses etc but hey that's another story.
In my Model A I have a Tilton Brake Clutch set up with one Titlton master and two Wilwood master cylinders. 50k+ with no problems. I like the balance bar on the Tilton setup, I didn't need to restrict the rear to get proper proportioning. Used a Tilton stand alone for the hydraulic clutch in my 59 ElCamino for many problem free miles too.
What size masters are are you guys running with the dual master set up ? I'm running the same set up with 1" masters and the pedal effort it too much. The brakes work but it takes a pretty hard effort to work them. I know I need to go smaller but not sure if I should go to 7/8 or all the way down to 3/4.
My concern is not technical but if you were involved in an accident and the other party's lawyer found the parts on your vehicle were "Not intended for highway use" it would only be a small step to convince the jury that you were liable regardless of what really happened. A good friend of mine was involved in a serious accident involving brakes. They took the brake system apart before the truck left the secure impound lot with a team of lawyers and mechanics from both sides watching. Charlie Stephens
I wanted to have great brakes and PREVENT the failure or accident so it didn't matter that they did not come off a DOT car. These "Race" parts are better designed for my purpose and work better than adapting something that might be close then using a restricter to the rear brakes so they don't lock up because it was not sized correctly. I had a clutch master fail once because it was not fabricated/installed correctly, the rod was not a straight throw into the master cylinder bore and it wallowed out the bore causing it to fail, a poor installation and a great lesson. I have never had brakes fail, and suspect ones that do were either not installed correctly or damaged somewhere. I would think there is just as much liability in adapting hydraulics from another car or discs that were not intended to go on old spindles as there is with specifically designed brake parts.
Increased pedal efforts are a problem with side-by-side masters, compared to a tandem dual master. Going to smaller bores will decrease efforts, but will increase travel and produce less fluid volume, something to keep in mind.
One issue I found with a couple of Wilwood masters was the lack of sealed fluid reservoirs. The owner did contact Wilwood and received diaphragm style gaskets to prevent air from contaminating the fluid. The logic is race cars change the fluid often, so venting to air is not the problem it is on a street vehicle. I would also inquire why certain masters are not DOT, if that's one you plan to use. IMO, I would not use anything brake related that does not have DOTs blessing.
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