57 pontiac brake booster woes!

ok, i really wanted to put disc brakes on my 57 pontiac, but there is no way that little master would ever push enough fluid for the disc brakes. As most pontiac guys know if it's a Canadian built pontiac your in luck as far as easy way out, chevy motor, almost everything is the same as 57 chevy. The American pontiacs well, pain in the rear, because almost nobody makes any bolt on stuff, inless it also happens to fit a chevy, than your in luck. So, i wanted to pass this on to us 1957 pontiac owners that were wanting to upgrade your master cylinder, but know that there is no upgrade. I made an adapter that uses the spinnoff part of the rear of the stock master, and some good old brainstorming to put this together. I don't know how this willwood master will perform with discs in front and drum in rear, i'm hoping that the booster will provide enough stopping assistance. I hope the pic is ok it is from my phone so sorry if it stinks. the teck like at willwood said the master would be more than enough to stop the car, it has a 1" bore and a 2" stroke. I'm just not sure how the booster will perform. I would love some feedback.


Register now (free) or login to remove ads

Attached Thumbnails

   

That is going to create a problem when you try to bleed the brakes, you'll never get all the air out of the master cylinder...

I dunno, it should be OK if the MC is bench bled horizontally first, then installed- shouldn't it?

this master has 2 bleeder screws on it, one for the rear resivour and one for the front.

I'm guessing bates_k was looking at the severe angle the MC is at in the photo. If it were installed at that much of an angle and had any air in it, the air would be trapped far from the bleeders.

That's why I mentioned bench bleeding it before installation. Bench bleeding should always be done, but some guys will bench bleed the MC w/it on the car. In your case, this wouldn't be advisable, IMO. Instead, just carefully secure it in a padded vise or something along those lines (Workmate, perhaps?).

I don't like the angle of the master. I would get a manual pedal setup and use that master and make a bracket to mount to the frame(Scarebird was making these at one time) so it was horizontal and lose the power assist or get a universal setup and put it in the frame like the pictures below. I took the defrost unit off my 55 and used a hanging pedel assembly off a 55 chevy. Last pic is a factory manual setup where the pedel comes up thru the floor.

Attached Thumbnails

       

Bench bleeding will get the air out of the master, how to keep it out when you install it is going to be rather messy...

everybody seems to be concerned about the angle of the dangle? the factory master hung the same way, not saying that it was a good idea, but i was more concerned about the power of the booster? i like the manual pedal idea, but as far as mounting pedals on the firewall, that ain't goin to happen. i wanted to keep this as simple as possible. this is going to be the wifes car,(so i told her) so there will be a need for the defroster.

Just wondering... Did you install the dual master? How did it work?