looking to go manual...
 

getting ready to convert to manual brakes in my 86 to free up some more space under the hood. which master cylinders are you guys using and how do you like them. i read on here somewhere that a guy has manual brakes with the pedal feel of power.. thats what i am looking for. i have stock disc up front and drums from i believe an s10 on the rear to fit my 12 bolt. what would you recommend?

Re: looking to go manual...
 

I'm using an aluminum S10 manual brake master cylinder. I have no idea what the bore size is or what year it was from. It might be 15/16" bore. I fabricated a way to attach it to the firewall through the bracket on the inside of the firewall. You can't simply bolt it to the sheet metal. Stepping on the brake will tear the bolts out of the sheet metal. A proper bracket will have 2 studs on it to attach the master cylinder then have 4 holes to attach to where the booster was attached. A custom length pushrod will need to be fabricated.

Manual brakes require more mechanical advantage to provide more pedal force. With power brakes, the booster and master cylinder are angled upward. With a master cylinder bolted to the firewall, preferable with a proper mount bracket, the pushrod will now go straight instead of upward. Relocating a new fabricated pushrod on the brake pedal about 1" higher than the stock mount will allow the pushrod to push straight into the master cylinder and will increase the mechanical advantage applied to the pushrod.

Third gen master cylinders have the outlet ports on the engine side. All other master cylinders have the outlet ports on the fender side. You'll have to re-route or fabricate new brake lines to the other side of the master cylinder.

Re: looking to go manual...
 

anyone using the burkhart kits or others comparible? looking to do a bolt in install

Re: looking to go manual...
 

The burkhart kit provides you with a firewall mounting plate which you can pick up from other places like Jegs and Summit. The kit still isn't a direct "bolt in". You still need to modify the brake pedal by removing it and drilling a hole 1" up from the stock location and you still need to modify the brake lines. I have no idea if they provide a new pushrod or not.

I do like how they mounted a line lock directly onto the master cylinder.

Re: looking to go manual...
 

thats what i liked about it. its a nice clean look to have the line lock right on the master and i believe it comes with everything i just have to drill the new hole.

Re: looking to go manual...
 

I have a strange 1.031 master with a bracket that fabbed up to mount it. I also fabbed a bracket up to bolt my line lock to the side of my master. I have braided line going from the master to line lock and braided to the adj. prop valve.