Hey everyone,

I'm strongly considering ditching the brake booster in my car. As it sits now it has basically stock 4 wheel disc brakes. I have wilwood prop valve, that hasn't been installed and some lines.

i have a welder and a rough plan on how to modify/fabricate some stuff to make this work.

Just have a couple questions about doing it though:

1) Will I be able to run the stock master Cylinder, or will there be an issue where it needs more pressure in order to work properly.

2) If number 1 is true, i thought about using a Booster from a 2nd gen camaro and fabbing a bracket and a rod to work with the petal. Will this work? Any other suggestions about more or less stock GM master cylinders that would generate enough pressure to stop a 3300Lb car?

If there's anything else, or if this is not a please chime in with reasons/arguements. If anyone out there has done this before, or can direct me to a prior post about this very subject, please direct me towards it.

The only reason, i'm thinking about ditching this is to give me better access to my Z bar (mechanical clutch linkage) and to free up the engine bay. the loss of the vaccum strain on the motor is nice too, especally as I'm looking at some cams for my new motor on a 108 LSA.

Thanks..

 

personally i would not do it. If you want a feel for manual brakes then remove the vacuum line and cap it. then take it for a spin. It won't be fun.

If you want more room then maybe a hydraulic set up would work. It piggy backs off your power steering and is much smaller. other than that i don't know what to tell you except manual brakes are not such a great idea.

also if vacuum is an issue then maybe look into a reserve tank with a pressure gauge.

 

I have my converted, its a drag car. I would say keep the booster for a street car if possible, manual isn`t too bad but I wouldn`t want to deal with it day in /out. Your stock master would work fine as it does now, you would however need to use a small adapter to fit the master to the firewall and move the pivot point up on the pedal about 1 1/4 inches for more leverage, other than that it`s a pretty simple swap.

here`s a good place to pick up the whole deal...

http://www.burkhartchassis.com/fbodycomponets.html

 

hey greezemonkey is that the kit that you used? I am in the process of doing this swap now I just need to order my kit and install it.

 

I have manaul brakes I have been trying to figure out why the car was not stoping very well in fact it was becoming more of a proublem as I drove it. I could not lock up the brakes. I backed the proportion valve all the way off no help. I then redid all of the brakes and the car still will not hardly stop. I move the rod up again anouther 1/2 inch the only thing it did was increase the amount of travel the peadle had still will not lock up tires on dirt road. Call Ed Quay since that is where I bought my kit from he did not know what the proublem was had me call Strange. I talked to Strange thay inform me that in early production thay had some master cylinders make it out the door that did not have a vent in the cap and to pull the master cyl re bench bleed it and to put small slice in it to help vent and that fixed my proublem. Long stry short if you get the kit just double check to see if the caps have a vent.

 

thanks for the input guys. concesus seems to be that its not a good idea, as I won't be able to lock the brakes up.

Greezemonkey:

It was a given about having to fab up a bracket too. So the MS needs to move upward; as in the whole thing needs to sit up towards the hood 1 1/4" more? Can I lengthen the stock petal-to-booster rod (if so, by how much?) or would I be better off to sheer the ends off and fab up my own? I figured i could use like 3/16" or 1/4" Round bar and machine one end with a taper and a round ball at the end and the other end have an eyelet for the petal bracket.

To pitch another theory out there....Do you think the stopping rate w/o a booster would change if you change the diaphram and spring inside the Master cylinder, or would it just make the petal more spongey, and still the same {lack of} stopping power?

I know it kind of sounds like I'm trying to talk myself into it, but a lot of GM cars came factory with bigger brakes than our cars and had manual brakes, and while they have a stiff petal feel, It doesn't compare to, as someone stated: "driving with the booster plugged".

Sorry for the long post, keep the comments coming.

 

Maby I worded this wrong . My brakes work good know I can lock them up if needed . And yes you will have to relocate the master higer but only as high as the factory hole in the fire wall will permet. And if you use a smaller master like a 1" bore you will have higher brake pressure in the lines I have the 1 1/4" bore and after some reading is more suited for four wheel disc with four piston calipers. And you can buy the rod and end seperate drill a 3/8 hole up 1 to 1 1/4 from the factory stud and test system.

 

I dont see any problem in doing it, if you follow the advice above. I have another car that has manual brakes and similar sized 4 wheel disc brakes and the pedal is a little on the stiff side but it doesnt bother me. I've only heard real complaints from people with... minimal leg strength. I probably wouldnt do it on a road race type car just to keep the squishy pedal and ease of modulation, but any other car if you want to ditch the power... go right ahead. You'll want to alter the pivot on the pedal though because its not designed for manual and you're not getting enough leverage.

Disconnecting the booster isnt the same thing. Thats kinda like plugging off the power steering, its not the same as a manual.

 

you are correct.
i dont have manual brakes on my 3rd gen, but a friend has a strange setup in his s10. you just gott push a bit harder.
at the strip.... you can push harder and have more brake force to stall the car up in the rpm range desired.