Brake booster Conversion

[deviot]

Hello,
I purchased an booster kit online and think I may have some issues. It appears to me that the brackets aren't right.
The car is up on blocks at the moment and the front is about 1-1/2 inches lower then the front.
The brake booster just hits the hood brace. But the master cylinder is on quite and angle, and when I put the car back on ground again, it will be even worse.
The two vertical faces of the bracket are not parallel, which it probably compounding the problem.
Just after some thoughts or advise. (see photo)
thanks
Dave

[toddgilroy]

You have probably already thought of this, but any chance you could use your old bracket?

[JohnG]

did you get the wrong bracket to the firewall?

There are some good photos here:

http://www.squarebirds.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=16294

and more info here:

http://www.squarebirds.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=17533

including drawings.

John

[840 840 840]

Hello,
I purchased an booster kit online and think I may have some issues. It appears to me that the brackets aren't right.
The car is up on blocks at the moment and the front is about 1-1/2 inches lower then the front.
The brake booster just hits the hood brace. But the master cylinder is on quite and angle, and when I put the car back on ground again, it will be even worse.
The two vertical faces of the bracket are not parallel, which it probably compounding the problem.
Just after some thoughts or advise. (see photo)
thanks
Dave

Would a simple 1/4 inch shim in the top of the booster bracket between the brace and the booster solve the problem?
If that would work, you could then build a proper angle shim. You may also be able to shim at the firewall to booster bracket.
We call that area the cowl some time when a car has been hit in the front this panel will deform and no one ever notices till work is later needed to be preformed in this area.
Charley

[YellowRose]

Brake booster Conversion

Dave, if you had the OEM Bendix booster and MC in place on your '59, as was suggested, you could use the mounting bracket that was on that booster. Others have done that. The other thing you could do to force that booster and mc down is to put some washers on the top studs at the firewall and at the booster. That should push the whole setup down to a level position.

[simplyconnected]

In good faith, Squarebird owners buy components that the vendors 'say' will fit. My experience is, there are no good kits on the market today for a Squarebird.

That leaves two options, leave it alone or make your own.

If your Squarebird came with a booster under the hood, this job is much easier because you can reuse everything from the firewall bracket to the brake pedal.

A disk brake setup requires much more boost than drum brakes so a two-stage 8" booster is required. We would go bigger but there is no more room. A two-stage 8" turns out to be the same diameter as your original booster.

One of our members (Howard Prout) made his own bracket and hardware because his '58 came with a treadlevac booster next to the brake pedal. Howard and Ray Clark are both using this bracket for years, now.

To make correct components takes many revisions and a lot of trial. We have been here many times.

If I bought a component that didn't fit or wouldn't work, I would send it back and make the vendor figure out how to remedy the problem. - Dave

[bird 60]

I could be way off here, but could it be that the firewall bracket is upside down?

Chris.....From OZ.

[simplyconnected]

Look at the picture. The firewall bracket must move the booster up five inches (12.5cm) and out from the firewall another five inches. Now, look at the bottom pivot point. It must clear the shifting arms.

This bracket is just plain wrong. The firewall plane and the booster plane are canted toward each other at the top.
A new setup should not need shims of any kind. - Dave

[deviot]

Update

Hi All,
I just thought I'd post an update on this. As you know life and kids sometimes result in your hobby going on the back burner for a while.
Thanks to everyone who assisted with this problem. As mentioned by a couple of posts that the bracket it wrong, that's the conclusion I had come to also.
Unfortunately I live a in OZ so communication with suppliers can be difficult with the time difference. But I had tried to tell them at ABS POWER BRAKE but they refused to listen.

Only more recently I stumbled on a photo on your site of the same kit and could clearly see the bracket was manufactured incorrectly. I sent them the photos and they basically agreed, and said they would send a new pair of brackets. This was all good until I gave them my address for delivery, in Australia. Not a single correspondence since.

I don’t like put down these companies that help out our fellow enthusiasts, but I thought I’d share my experience.
In this case they have failed on many fronts; No instructions, wrong brackets, very poor customer service.

Had I known I would need to manufacture something I could have bought a local generic booster and master cylinder for about 1/3 the price I paid.

[simplyconnected]

...If your Squarebird came with a booster under the hood, this job is much easier because you can reuse everything from the firewall bracket to the brake pedal...

I know this is a statement BUT, let me ask the question; did your Squarebird come with a booster?

[deviot]

It came equiped with a non original booster fixed to the fire wall with a large metal plate and 8 large bolts holding it to the fire wall, in probably one of the worst conversion you could have ever seen.
The boosted and master cylinder I have no idea what they were off, but they didn't stop of the car.
The shape in the firewall where the booster sits had been bashed in with a hammer. I have replace the brake pedal and brackets that it hangs off as these were all modified, reshape the firewall back to original.
I have bits of the original system in boxes that came with the car. No booster or brackets, but I have those cylinder air bag things that go under the dash, and the tank is still under the front fender.

[simplyconnected]

ABS Power Brake contact...

David Richardson, I spoke with two people at ABS Powerbrake today; Memo (one of the owners) and Uzi (a salesman). I explained what I know from your posts.

They said you need to contact them with more information because they had no record of a sale from David Richardson in Rowville, Victoria, Australia. They went back to Feb., 2015.

So...
Email Uzi (uzi@abspowerbrake.com) with your information. It would be best to give an invoice number or something they can reference at ABS.

Let me know your results because at first, Memo said he already sent the correct bracket. After holding his feet to the fire, he couldn't tell me when he sent it, then all of a sudden I got his salesman (Uzi) who is asking for more info from you.

Memo told me they have two firewall brackets that are similar but with different angles; one for Lincolns and the other for Squarebirds. He didn't argue that you might have the Lincoln bracket. - Dave

[Sherman]

Hello, I purchased my kit from ABS and it took them several attempts to send me the correct parts. They were very slow in sending the correct parts and I finally received the right parts after about a month. I ended up having to hold/dispute the charges with my credit card company until all of the correct parts were delivered.

If you purchased the the entire disc brake conversion kit, I would also recommend getting ALL of the oem part numbers for all of the items purchased. Like most "kits" being sold, ABS uses a collection of parts from several cars...If I remember correctly I think they used Chevy Corsica calipers (for the 14 inch KH wheel kits), a Ford Bronco booster, Mustang rotors..etc Having the part number will help later if/when you have to replace wear items.

I also remember the directions they sent for attaching the caliper bracket were shown backward. Again, I'm not sure if you purchased the entire kit, but it is something to look out for.


In the end, the conversion was a night and day difference in driveability.

[Sherman]

Pictures of ABS Brake Booster

[Yadkin]

Sherman- please resize your pictures to meet the forum guidelines.