'52 Suburban - Brake Upgrade and Clutch

[Bob Riding]

I'm moving right along on my '52 Suburban build. This week I finished upgrading the brakes to a dual master cylinder from ECI Hotrod Brakes and Brackets. It's very well made and I had no trouble fitting it to my existing underfloor brake pedal.  The instructions were good, and the only thing I had to buy extra was a bracket off eBay, to hold the combination valve below the master cylinder. I tried to re-use all the original clutch parts that I could, but needed to add a bit of metal to the clutch pull back spring arm as it was wallowed out, and install new clevis pins. My wife donated her old tan purse for the clutch fork seal. I saved some $ by using the P15D24 Forum template and made one myself, as AB and others are all out of stock.

Next-steering column fun!

[Booger]

Bob you are are rock star.

That's some skilled work

[Bob Riding]

Thanks Booger. It's like building car models when I was a kid. I wouldn't be attempting a lot of this without the support of our Forum members! It's also fun. 

[Saskwatch]

Thank you Bob for posting this with the details and pictures, excellent workmanship & very timely. 
  I hope you will consider on doing the same type of post for your steering column project , I for one am very interested!👍

[Bob Riding]

You're welcome. I'm in the middle of the steering column teardown and will document and show and tell

[Bob Riding]

Progress on the build: In anticipation of reinstalling the body onto the frame, I realized that the original opening for access to what used to be the single master cylinder has now moved rearward by about 6 inches. That causes a bit of a dilemma in that the new location is halfway underneath the supporting rib for the floor. As I’m not crazy about the idea having to remove the front seat to check the brake fluid level in my new dual master cylinder, I looked for remote-fill alternatives. The dual master that ECI Hot Rod Brakes and Brackets provided is basically a generic Mustang unit from 1968 to '70.  I was surprised that after much searching, none of the biggies, Summit, JEGS, Speedway, etc. had anything that would work. Finally I was able to find one vendor, A Plus Rod and Kustom in Indiana that makes a remote-fill for Mustang underfloor master cylinders. It’s a little pricey, but solves my problem very nicely and is made in the US. I had a nice talk with the sales guy, Andy, and was glad to be supporting a small manufacturing business in the US.

[Dartgame]

master power brakes makes an under the floor remote reservoir MC. I put one in my car.

[Bob Riding]

16 hours ago, Dartgame said:

master power brakes makes an under the floor remote reservoir MC. I put one in my car.

I saw them, but didn't want the "power" part. How do you like them?

[Dartgame]

Mine are manual and they work great! Master power had both power and manual cylinders when I bought mine, not sure if both are still available.

[Bob Riding]

Success! The top of the stainless fill line elbow is a 1/2" or so below the floor. Lots of clearance, Clarence 😁. Now I will be able to remotely supply the dual master without having to disassemble the wagon!

[Sam Buchanan]

That arrangement would very nicely lend itself to connection to a power bleeder. Connect the bleeder at the remote reservoir line, add a bit of pressure and bleed each corner. 

[Bob Riding]

Brilliant!