Many of you may have noticed the new brake booster and master cylinder conspicuously lurking about in many of the pictures posted so far. I haven't been speaking to it because its only been mounted with some lines and hasn't given me any problems. That is until now. But lets "stop" right there and start from the beginning.
In case you haven't seen the new system, lets take a closer look -
That is the Tuff Stuff 9" booster with Wilwoods tandem master cylinder and prop valve. I love it. You want to know the real reason for going this route? Crappy master cylinders, that's why. I have been taking the time to detail mine (ever since that HPP Shootout in '06) and I paint them up nice and take care not to ever get any fluid on it. Then the car sits. Then I drive it. Then it sits. Then I drive it. Then it sits. Then I drive it. Then it sits. As that routine is burned in, these MCs don't seem to stand up very long. The seal lets go and then you have a squishy pedal and brake fluid to contend with along with having to buy another crap shoot of a cylinder. I'm tired of replacing these store bought pieces of crapola and I'm not going to take it any more!
I'm hoping the Wilwood MC serves me well for a long time. If anyone has anything bad to say about them, please don't say it to me. If I ask, please lie and tell me they are the the best thing you ever bought. I cant take anything but good news at this point in the build.
The 9" booster was a easy choice. The original style 11" was always in the way with the sheet metal valve covers. I just hope the smaller booster generates enough push to allow me to feel comfortable slowing down. It should. it has more overall surface area. Plus I've got a vacuum can, so I should be OK....I hope. Needless to say, first, second and third drives will be quite pensive.
The decision to even stay w/power I'm questioning in retrospect. I may switch it all out for manual brakes if it proves to be an issue. The thought of re-bending all those lines again makes my thumbs hurt, so for now, I'll just pretend everything is OK.
Besides my buddy threading this adapter into the master without anti seize and us then having to carefully extract it without ruining either part -
...I had no problems with installation. That is, until I went to put fluid in.
Now most guys would look at that angle of attack and instantly know the master was sitting too high. Not me. It was off this car for a long time by this point, and while there was something that kept drawing my eye to it, I couldn't put my finger on it. I just thought it was newpartawesomenessnessness.
Turns out, the Wilwood MC has a hole in the divider wall, not at the top of the reservoir like the OEM style, but in the middle of the divider itself. This makes it awful difficult to pour in fluid and have any in the front reservoir actually stay there as the rear overflows. Dang. This would have been nice to know, say, 6 months prior when I bought this thing.
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Tip#13: Do not buy any mail order parts until you are ready to mock them up, make adjustments to surrounding pieces to fit, tear them down, clean sand and refinish the surrounding areas, and permanently remount and test all within the return period of the aforementioned mail order company. I get stuck with so many parts just trying to plan ahead and be proactive. Don't be proactive!
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Anyway, I spoke to Wilwood at SEMA just to confirm this is the right part for my application. Their recommendation was a simple one. Buy some angle reducing brackets and mount the booster using those.
Here is the problem with that. The stock firewall mount for the booster is angled at something like 17 degrees. Thats fine for stock boosters and MCs, but not for the longer booster and longer MC combination. Wilwood needs to see this this MC come in at about 9 degrees. The problem is this is a 73, and of course, that means its different than anything else prior to it. Regular angle reducing brackets will not work without extensive modification. Allow me to explain...
The stock booster bracket is a unique piece - check it out - I did not modify this in any way. Order a power booster for 73 LeMans, and you'll get this piece along with it. All I did was grind off the rivets holding it on to the booster.
Firewall side
Booster side
As you can see, different bolt patterns on each side, and an odd pattern across the piece on the firewall side.
The new brackets will definitely reduce the angle...
..but they present a problem when you try and line them up with the studs coming out of the firewall. On the drivers side of the 73 firewall, there are two studs, and three holes in the firewall. You can kinda see it in this picture. The newer looking, zinc plated "stud" is just a bolt I sent through the firewall from the passenger compartment.
I can't use the factory top stud because the booster won't line up properly with the big hole in the firewall if I do. (I'm sticking with the "There is no way in hell I'm modifying a freshly painted firewall" attitude btw) Using the middle "stud" is not a problem until you get to the passenger side of the mount. There are only two studs over there, but they are parallel with the middle and top studs on the drivers side, not the middle and bottom like the reduced angle bracket is expecting. Sooo, not only do I need to cut the reduced angle bracket so it mimics the short run of the booster mount, I need to lengthen the other end, so I can drill a hole through it and mount it to the firewall. All while keeping the angles between the two consistent. Yeah, OK.
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Solution: Pie cut the stock booster bracket.
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My nephews father in law works with pumps for a large state run transportation organization. He and his team are great with welders and are very familiar working with aluminum. I am not. (no TIG recall). I told them what I needed, and this is what I got:
This has got to be one of the slickest parts on the car. A stock looking, reduced angle booster bracket. Check out how the booster sits now.
It screws up my custom bent brake lines a tad, but it serves me right for thinking something would work the first time through. This is hot rodding after all.