Last Sunday ( 27 June 2021 ), I was driving to El Dorado AR and ... lost my brakes.

Completely.

Managed to limp home with topping the master cylinder off and pumping (helpful all the Baptists and most of the other Christians were in church!), and ... parked the truck.

Turns out my master cylinder AND my booster have failed.

Well, my proportioning valve is bad (no brake fluid to back brakes through the front prop/combo valve), so I had planned to replumb the car and replace the PV anyway.

This just ... accelerated my plans.

Today I got the new MC, reman'ed booster, and new PV2 valve assembled.

Also got the old MC out.

Here are a few pics of my first wave.

Just as a note - the studs on the booster are M8-1.25 threaded. I'm using prevailing tension lock nuts to hold mine together, because I'm twice noided! (A para noids ... )



Firewall looks bare here.

That's the top U joint on my intermediate shaft. The purple wire through the grommet is for my subwoofer.

New one sitting there, not plumbed into truck yet.

 

The thing people forget, even paranoid's have enemy's.

 

Just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean the whole world ISN'T out to get you.

 

I'll add that I had to flare the new lines.

So I broke down and bought a proper double flare tool for the 3/16" cupro-nickel tubing.

Titan Double Flaring Tool 51535 | O'Reilly Auto Parts (oreillyauto.com)

Hurt my cheap-*** heart to pay $45 for it, but MAN does it work well!

Makes my heart feel better!

RwP

 

I'll reserve comment on the can of lubricant that comes with it.

 

Glad you didnt get hurt..... Loosing both front and rear is rare, but can happen!

 

Well, I haven't had rear for a while ... and losing the front was ... let's just say I'm also having to scrub a brown stain out of the blue seat.

But nothing happened past my incipient heart attack, thankfully! VERY glad it was a slow Sunday, and I was almost alone on the road.

Side note: Wanted to add that the booster/firewall studs were M8-1.25 thread also. So you can use six to eight new M8-1.25 bolts if doing your own. Presuming a new booster uses the same size studs. I'm putting flange nuts on the booster/firewall studs, like Everbilt M8-1.25 Zinc Metric Flange Nut (2 per Bag)-803918 - The Home Depot. (The booster/cylinder studs got prevailing torque nuts because I'm just weird that way.)

RwP

 

Whew.

Got the two proportioning valves out; also, almost all the old brake line (not going to futz with the passenger front where it crosses over under the rack.)

Have a new passenger front run, over the firewall, down low. And down the inner fender.

I don't have pics yet (haven't drilled and mounted the Adel clamps yet), but it looks pretty good to me.

DID have to use two unions since the motor was in the way. With the motor and rack out, I'd run more like the original run, even though I'm dropping the junction block (the PV2 has two outlets for front brakes; I'll give each side its own outlet).

The rear-valve-to-rear-axle piece is still in the truck too; I'll have to pull the driver's side rear tire to gain access to it, I think.

RwP

 

Turns out that just jacking the truck up and putting the jack stands under the frame, not the axle, cleared the two hold downs enough to remove the rear piece.

Also had to do the crossover from the brake hose to the passenger side rear brake, it wasn't passing ANY fluid (!!!)

But they're done.

Need to finish bolting down the Adel clamps to hold the new lines in the front.

Note to others: TRIPLECHECK all joints. I found three leakers under high pressure (took my stepson standing on the brake pedal with the motor running to find them!) and had to tighten the fittings up a bit more - both front hose to hard line fittings and one fitting into one union.

Brakes feel SO much better now.

Now to do the "Speed up in reverse and slam on the brakes" rear wheel final adjustment sometime this week ... my plans are to go to a church that used to be a mall and go to the far side of the parking lot to do that.

RwP

 

Note. IF you're doing new hard lines all over, and a new proportioning valve and master cylinder (and booster), go ahead, do all the wheel cylinders also.

I had one blow out Thursday; thankfully the PV and master cylinder did what they were supposed to, and I kept front brakes.

Today is "Redo the rear brakes" day - $100 down the drain that I really didn't want to spend, on brands I'd rather not (Duralast instead of ACDelco / Raybestos / Wagner) due to having to hurry up and do it.

Second note: Not a bad idea to, when you have spare change, order things like pads/shoes, bearings, rotor/hubs, drums, hardware kits (side note: After my 1967 Belair, in about 1973, decided to go SPUNG and lose hardware on the passenger front drum, I've always done new hardware. It's cheap, and a HELLA lot cheaper than the medical expenses of putting me back together ... ), calipers, wheel cylinders, etc. So you can do the brakes at your leisure with the brands you want, instead of "What'cha got?" "OK - I'll take it."

Third note: Lifetime warranty on brakes? Does this mean that when they fail, they kill you?

RwP