Corvette Master Cylinder for 54+ Trucks

[59bisquik]

After many searches on dual master cylinder upgrades, the Cherokee unit comes up most frequently. While this is reported to be a nice upgrade on 53 and older trucks, 54 and newer have the master cylinder mounted on the frame rail above the removable transmission crossmember. The Cherokee style master cylinder has a tube sticking out of the cylinder that binds with the 54+ linkage (As I found out the hard way). Thus, I used a universal Corvette master cylinder from Speedway Motors and a Cherokee proportioning valve from the wrecking yard.

Here is the adapter I made and the Cherokee master. Notice the tube sticking out of the end.

Here is the Corvette unit mounted. Notice there is plenty of room to the floor and frame rail. The Corvette unit uses regular 3/16 inverted flares versus the Cherokee metric bubble flares, so the lines can be easily made in the garage and adapters are not needed. The only words of wisdom here, use the flare nuts from the Cherokee proportioning valve. They are standard 3/16 inverted flare, but the nuts are bigger than normal. This will save on adapters and hunting through parts stores. The push rod had to be shortened slightly, but does not bind due to it being the same style as the stock unit.

[cavisco1]

Nice write-up. Thanks for posting this.