'66 Malibu N/SA

[Dave Muller]

Originally Posted by HandOverFist

I don't recall seeing it mentioned earlier in the thread. What brakes are you using up front?

I'm told they're the same a GM brakes from the early 70s. It's a Right Stuff disc conversion kit. I bought it when I was still planning this as a street car. I may upgrade to much lighter discs this summer, these are very heavy.

[Nmbr1GMfan]

If brake pedal travel is the issue are there residual valves in the system?

[Pistol Pete]

Great Looking Car Dave.
Thanks for sharing the build with us.
Good Luck Racing This Year.

[Dave Muller]

Originally Posted by Nmbr1GMfan

If brake pedal travel is the issue are there residual valves in the system?

Pedal travel has not been a problem and it's a minimalist system, no residual or proportioning valves, just the master cylinder, wheel cylinders/calipers and the tubing that connects them.

[Nmbr1GMfan]

Originally Posted by Dave Muller

Pedal travel has not been a problem and it's a minimalist system, no residual or proportioning valves, just the master cylinder, wheel cylinders/calipers and the tubing that connects them.

I have found if the pedal is good but fades (no system leaks) it's a master problem.

[Dave Muller]

That's what I was thought was most likely. Hopefully that'll do it. I hope to be able to check for leaks this weekend. Just need to enlist my son to press the pedal while I look everything over.

[Dave Muller]

With a little assistance today I did some more testing on the brakes. No leaks, and it holds pressure a lot better. I see it dropping 50 PSI or so sometimes, but I think that's just me imperfectly maintaining pedal force. It's easy to get it over 1000, and as long as it stays over about 550 the 2-step should stay engaged.

I'm looking forward to taking the car out again, which is planned for the ADRA race on June 9th. Other than that I don't expect to run the car before the Salt Lake races. I'll just focus on the Summit Series with the Camaro.

[Dave Muller]

Well, it's been a while since I did anything significant to this car. Instead of upgrading anything I've been spending all my money on travel, race gas and entry fees. The best ET so far is 12.383 (-.617) at Sonoma.

I had some issues with getting the pressure switch and 2-step setup working well, and then problems with the distributor clamp (of all things!) but those seem to be sorted out now.

I managed to scrape together enough money this month to finally do something that will hopefully make a difference; replacing the heavy stock-type disc brakes with Wilwoods.

So here's the setup I started with:



I weighed components as they came off and weighed the counterparts before installation. I removed 40 lbs. from the front of the car, about half of it rotating weight.





I found in the process though that the left lower ball joint had popped out of the a-arm! I'm not sure how that happened but now I'm planning to replace the whole setup there, a-arm, ball joint and bushings to get all fresh parts there.

Once that's fixed I'll have two AZ Stock/Super Stock Association races to check it out and get some practice driving, then I'm off to the Winternationals to cross that off the bucket list. Although a big motivation to run Pomona is that my son is currently living in the LA area so I'll get to hang out with him for the weekend!