Hey Stephen I picked up an S10 manual brake master cylider from the local Auto Zone this weekend. I was under the impression it woul dhave a rod on it to attach to the brake pedal.

It was not that way. It looks just like the one I took off of the car except the ports for the lines are on the other side.

WTF?

Was wondering if you could shed some light on this for me..

Im ready to do this and not sure what I should be doing next... could I get the rod off the old brake booster somehow and reuse it? Dont know how to get it off though...

*scrathing head*

Third and Fourth gens are the only GM vehicles that have the brake lines on the engine side. Because of the strut tower, there isn't any room to have them on the fender side. Since you're removing the booster, the master cylinder will mount to the firewall with lots of room on the outside for the brake lines. I custom made a set for mine to reach the combination valve. Metric bubble flare on one end and standard double flare on the other. It wasn't easy but it worked and it doesn't leak.

The pushrod and boot I used was out of the S10 I got the master cylinder from. It was way to long. I cut it down and threaded the end for a heim joint. You can see the type of heim joint I used on the end in the pictures. I don't recommend using a ball socket. There's a lot of force on it when you step on the brake and a ball socket isn't as strong.

There's no reason you can't use the old rod. The rod is nothing special except being hard steel so it doesn't bend. After installing the master cylinder and modifying the brake pedel (hole one inch higher) cut to the length you need.

As I mentioned in previous posts, the master cylinder will not directly bolt onto the firewall. They sell nice adaptor plates but I just bolted mine to the bottom 2 holes and rebolted the brake pedal bracket with the top 2 holes. See pics.

Converting to manual brakes doesn't save much weight. The booster is only a few pounds. I converted for more room in the engine compartment and I don't have to worry about low vacuum for the power brakes.

I understood most of that already... I need to find someway of getting the rod off of my old brake booster then. Im not quite sure how I do that...

If you rememebr taking your stock master cylinder off of the brake booster it had a plunger looking deal. That is what this one looks like....

I need to do some more investigating it seems... Ive apparently bought the wrong part.

If you have trouble holding car on line while staging, try eliminating the prop valve altogether and just use direct pressure. This will eliminate the pressure drop to rears and also relieve the residual pressure in lines. Also use just the long (secondary) shoes on all 4 locations in rear; this will also increase holding pressure on rears. The S10 also used 7/8 dia wheel cylinders on manual brake applications where all the f-bodies and power brake equipped S10s used 3/4 dia ones. So far I've been able to get by without having to swap to the larger wheel cylinders while staging at 2600-2800 rpms with my 8" converter.
Hope this helps.

WWW.MPBRAKES.COM Try this link I found a lot of good info there

From what I remember about pulling off the rod from a power brake system. I'd mount the master cylinder in a vise and put a pry bar through the hole in the end of the rod. Use a hammer and give the pry bar a good whack. It takes a bit to break it free but it does come out.

The manual master cylinder just needs a rod with a rounded end.

Holding it on the line wont be an issue for me. I have a trans brake.

I eliminated the booster for space reasons. Very close to brake lines with my headers. And besides, everything else is gone under the hood except for the wiper motor... why not the brake booster too.

haha