Does anyone in here have non powered disc brakes on the front of the B body car, or car of equal weight???? I would like some feedback......... Thanks........

My car is a 66 Impala

I have non power disk on the front of the 36 which weighs in at about 3400 pounds wet (all fluids and gas tank full). The brakes are ok and I have driven a number of miles with them in place and have not had a problem. However I am thinking of going to larger brakes this winter and change to power at the same time. On a car as heavy as your Impala I would go with the Power Brakes if at all possible. Just my 2 cents worth.

I don't build motors with enough vacuum to run power assisted brakes. My bro's 69 C10 doesn't have power brakes, and it's been 4 wheel drums it's whole life (until recently) and it's just fine. With the 11" disc brake conversion, it stops great! It's not as good as many other cars/trucks with better brakes, but it feels pretty damn good. And you don't really have to "stand" on them to get em to work under pressure. I'd say if you can't afford it, don't have the room, or just don't want em, don't worry about it. But if you do want them, put em in. Braking is like HP, you can never have enough...

I can not agree with you more tubbed, that is why I am going to upgrade the 36 this winter to 11 inch brakes (I am still running the 9 inch 5 lug pinto units) I may even go to a set of the cross drilled rotors.

I'd recommend it Eblack, the one thing I did notice about the stock 11" conversion is that it heats up pretty fast. You do about 4 80 mph stops and the pedal gets a littly gushy...

Well I ordered my 2 inch drop spindles and power brake setup. But I have one other question. When I run the poportioning valve. Do I have to run the front line through the valve? Or can I just run the back brakes through the poportioning valve. I have heard that I can run it either way??? It seems I could keep my existing line ( single master cylinder ) for the front. That way I would only have to plumb one line for the rear through the poporting valve.......

And when I disconnect my rear brake line from the original junction, I will need to extend it up to the porporting valve. Do they make a double sided female connector to join two brake lines???? Thanks for the imput.............

UNLESS the vehicle in question is going to be trailered back and forth to car shows, and is a 100-point resto, GET RID of the single reservoir master cylinder and re-plumb the vehicle with a modern dual reservoir setup.

When a single reservoir system fails, ANYWHERE, you lose brakes to ALL wheels and that could result in a bad crash at worst. If you're lucky when the brakes go out unexpectedly you might be able to turn it off the road into a field and coast to a stop. My luck is'nt that good, so I converted the single setup on my '54 Ford to a modern dual setup.

Generally, using later year components for a similar size/weight vehicle will get you a reliable and safe brake system.
In my case I used a Caddy Eldorado 4 wheel disc master and combo valve, no booster, with '79 Camaro front spindles and brakes on the Ford IFS, and a '66 Mustang 8" rear with Eldorado rotors and GM calipers on modified Chevy 4WD caliper brackets.

It is also a good idea to replace the old lines with all new lines and unions (coupler pieces). Trust me on this, you don't know when a rusty line will suddenly rupture and nowadays pre-made lengths of line are cheap, you can run all new lines in the average vehicle for less than getting a dented fender fixed.

In your case I would get a master and original style combo valve for a late-Seventies Impala, unless your brake kit supplier has a bolt on kit for your earlier car. I would forget about using the adjustable style prop valves, you can use a factory style combo valve with better results.

Check out Fred Puhn's 'Brake Handbook', or some of the Tex Smith books like 'How to Build Hot Rods' or 'How to Build Custom Cars' at your library or local bookstores, they will have chapters on brake systems and line routing pictures to show the modern style dual setup.

Doc

Doc I am switching to a Dual Mater Cylinder setup. What I was asking was I heard there are two different way to plumb the new sytem. I can take my existing one brake line that I have now coming out of the single master cylinder and use that for the front brakes though the poporting vavle. Then all I have to do is plumb a new line for the rear.

Right now the one line from the single master goes to the front and rear at a T. I was going to plug the hole that goes the rear brake lines from that T. And run the rear line up to the rear side of the new dual master cylinder........

Does this make since?????

I have already replaced all the front brake lines........ Thanks for the input.........

Dave

When you get your dual setup, you should get a new dual-chamber master and a combo valve. Mount these first, it's likely your combo valve should go on the frame or a firewall mount under the master. Plumb these together with one line from each master port to each inlet port on the combo valve. Your disc setup will work off the REAR or larger reservoir, and should feed the side of the combo valve with 2 outlets..

Coming out of the combo valve (for most RWD vehicles), there will be 3 ports. The one coming out of the back of the combo valve, inline with the internal plunger in most cases, is a larger 1/4" line to go back to the rear drums. This will be plumbed thru your rear flex hose, and then branch off to each rear wheel cylinder.

The front wheels will each use a line from the combo valve to each front flex line, one per side. They DO NOT connect together.

Get rid of all your old plumbing lines. In most cases they will be rusty on the outside, perhaps on the inside as well where you cannot see it, since brake fluid is hydroscopic (meaning it will absorb moisture, and this moisture can and will rust the lines out from the inside, usually in a low-lying area).

There is NO WAY of knowing whether the old lines are still safe to use. Would you trust your life or the lives of others on saving $50 worth of new steel tubing and some brass unions? With a disc conversion it's likely you will replace the front flex hoses, spend a little more and replace the rear flex hose, and put 2 new wheel cylinders in the back if you have not already done so. Why skimp and do most of a complete brake job when you can have it all done in one shot?

Doc

Thanks bro.......