Posted by Keith in Washington on Tuesday, March 20, 2001 at 11:35AM :
In Reply to: Re: Pics of my WC 53 posted by Paul on Sunday, March 18, 2001 at 7:31PM :
Paul:
The brake and clutch peddle were in the truck when I bought it. It is an aftermarket unit. I saw one in a performance shop about a year ago. I did not see a brand on it. It really was designed for a combined brake and clutch master cylinder. But I opted for a seperate dual brake master cylinder and a seperate clutch master cylinder. That is why you see the brake master cylinder on the extension that is mounted on the firewall. There was not enough room to mount the brake booster and the clutch master cylinder side by side. I have been very pleased with how the system works. The boosted brake system has been good with the original drums. I am currently putting on a set of disk brakes by Helitool. The old drum brakes just fade too much when they get hot.
In mounting the brake system I added significant support to the firewall area. First, the mount for the brake booster is made of heavy plate steel with a heavy wall tube then another thick plate steel mount for the acutal mounting plate for the booster. The clutch master mounts to the firewall mounting plate of this assembly. The brake peddle assembly is made to mount to a flat surface and is not really that thick of metal. So on the inside, when I bolted the assembly to the firewall I added another thick plate on the inside of the firewall. I also added steel plate spacers to fill in the unevenness of the fire wall. The firewall is sandwiched between these thick steel plates. I drilled 4 holes through the peddle assembly and the firewall mounting plates to mount the whole thing to the firewall. I drilled 2 holes in the firewall for the push rods for the clutch and brake booster. The firewall is not designed to take the forces associated with pushing against the brake peddle and will flex. To reduce the flex I made 2 heavy gage sheet metal supports. I bent them a 90 degrees with each side being about 1 1/4" and about 18" long. These were mounted between the peddle assembly and the bottom of the dash where the steering column is mounted. I had to trim the ends of these pieces to assure clearance with the peddles and dash. These pieces really transfer a lot of the stress back to the dash and reduces firewall flex. When I was done I actually had a triangle of support for the firewall. The new pieces that I just described for the bottom of the triangle and mount between the dash and the center line of the mounting plates and master cylinders. The Mounting plates and firewall make up the fron side of the triangle. The top of the triangle is the original dash/firewall support that was in the truck, which bolts to the dash at the same place as the new pieces that I built. Once I put in the floor transmission hump and floor plates, which ties down the bottom of the firewall, I have no noticable flex. I am considering putting a support that runs from the brake booster mounting bolts back to the two original bolts in the firewall that mount the original dah/firewall support. This would provide a little more support for the booster assembly which is quie heavy since I made it of thick steel plates.
I will have to look up the paint code I do not have it with me.
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