'69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

I'm building our '69 Chevelle wagon into a stocker. I'm leaving the rear drums, but am converting the factory front disc over to aftermarket. I've removed the vacuum booster and master cylinder assembly, as well as the factory proportioning valve. I intend to install a aftermarket adjustable proportioning valve. At this point, I plan to adapt a Mopar style master. Does anyone have any idea if a "plug and play" master cylinder set up is offerred? Strange does not make one.

Secondly, I've watched cars like this want to tip over turning corners in the pits. I do not want that with my car. I'm going to keep this project very simple and on a low budget, and am going with a air bag set up in the rear, not an anti-roll bar. If I remove the front sway bar, is it going to do the tip over deal? It does not do that now.

Thanks for any input.

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

Although I run a 70 chevelle, the masters are the same, I have a wilwood master cylinder with the wilwood front discs with rear drums. The master cylinder is not a 'plug and play' I had to carefully slot the holes that mount on the firewall, and the steel brake line fittings off the master had to be reversed ( rear res fitting goes to the front, and front fitting to the rear). I run the factory prop valve in mine although my car had factory front discs on it. One thing to note is you will probably want to get the wilwood master cylinder mount kit mainly for the pushrod retention deal. The line pressure went up huge from the factory master, although the pedal feel is deffinitely softer, hope this helps.

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

Jr,s Wagon has no sway bar and very soft front suspension/Calvert Stuff
on back...........No issues with cornering or turning. Does not drive any different
than his Sedan car. No scratches on his roof rack so far!

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

This one is a bolt in for what you are doing Dan.
NAPA part number M2456

$49 brand new at any NAPA you can sweet talk a wholesale price at.

We supply most of our local "frugal" GM bracket racers with these units.

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

Dan... I used a Wilwood (Mopar style) master cylinder in my 70' Nova. I removed the pedal assembly and ground off the original master cylinder mounting studs and redrilled the new master cylinder bolt pattern and installed 5/16 x 11/4 NF GR8 capscrews and tack welded them to the structure. This will allow you to bolt the master cylinder to the pedal assembly on the work bench. You can now make your own custom push rod and push rod retaining device. Make sure you install a jamb nut on the threaded portion of the push rod and tighten it after your adjustment. The push rod indexing hole in the back side of the master is fairly shallow, so for safety make yourself a push rod guide plate (piece of flat bar with a hole in it) between the clevis at the pedal and the back side of the master and weld it in place close to the backside of the master. You will also have to file the original holes slightly at the firewall to make a perfect fit on installation of the assembly. As for the body roll, having control of the rear suspension is the most important thing.

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

Thanks for the input guys!

Hopefully we can keep the scratches off, too! And frugal, I like that description...LOL...

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

We have a 71 Chevelle Wagon and it does the tip over routine in the pits when turning. It's annoying and looks stupid. We have put a rear sway bar in this winter, and wonder if anything else might get rid of the problem. This tip over business seems to only affect the chevy wagons.

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

Dan, the only thing that is going to fix the roll over with the front sway bar removed is an anti roll bar. When I ran an air bag in my old car, it always twisted on turns. Only after I put the Weibe stuff in, is when that stopped . The drag race anti roll bars do a great job of keeping the suspension level on the launch.

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

Sent you a PM

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

What motor are you going to run in your wagon? What class?

My brother and I run a 71 wagon and use the stock GM dual reservoir master cylinder. We run the stock disc brake system and stock proportioning valve. The car seems to stop fine. The only issue I have had with this set up is if I don't put enough heat in the brake pads before a burnout, the line lock won't hold the car.

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

My 68 Chevelle wagon has the OEM drum brake unit. It has the stock drums all the way around, and it holds on the line pretty well. As to the way the car drives,it goes down the track very well, but without sway bars, it does get the body roll on turns.Rear suspension is OEM with Lakewood no hop bars. Edelbrock adjustable upper rear arms and boxed lowers will be added in the future. A good rear bar wouldn't hurt things,either.

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

Dan,
If booster mounted with 4 studs you'll probaly want to move master to top holes,my 79 malibu was that way originally I installed with master in center of the four holes brakes worked OK but not great found out later that manual brake setup had master mounted on the top set of holes,increased ratio made huge difference in braking power.
MAKE sure you have pushrod retained so it can't come out,some masters have just a countersunk area for the rod to set in I usaully drill that a little deeper so there is absoulutely no way for the rod to come out and fab something so pedal can't pull rod out of master anyway.
I don't want to read in your N/D stories about the your manual brake conversion gone bad and crashing the family wagon.LOL
I like reading your stories,good luck with your project.
Most of time if rear is @ stock height or lower w/factory sway bar,body roll should'nt be bad. Mike Taylor 3601

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

The wagon is going to be a K, L, M car with a 255. The whole premise here is that Thomas wants to race every weekend, whether its for $5 or 5 million, and a stocker seems to be more suited for that as opposed to a SS car. We both love the wagon, and after watching Jody make everyone look silly, well......

After everyone's input, both here, pm's and emails, it looks like the budget is going up and the air bags are going back to inventory. Although it looks bitchin', I don't think a 12 flat car is going to need the Alf W set up, and the BMR anti-roll looks pretty nice, so I'm planning to go that direction. Thanks Greg B. The master assembly bolted onto 4 studs as you said Mike. If Alex's deal is a bolt on unit, that sounds like me! And I'll be sure to make a positive return stop for the pedal. I really don't like Thomas all that much most of the time, but I don't want the car wrecked, lol...

The car already has approved aftermarket lower trailing arms. I don't think I need to replace the upper assembly with anything trick, thoughts?

And as for body mount bushings, they look like a lot of fun to replace. All I've been able to find are poly mounts. Does anyone know of a solid mount, or do we have to make them ourselves?

Thanks again everyone!

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

Dan, while I agree a 12 flat car don't need Alf's suspension, the truth is the car will work better for many reasons and no one's anti roll bar functions as well as the rear housing cause that is the anti roll bar when using Alf's setup.

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

Body mounts = hockey pucks get ones that say made in Canada ,cheap ones break.---Trevor

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

I think a 255 is a good pick. With the right suspension set up that car will be capable of running faster than 12.00 flat. With our wagon we don't have a lot of expensive trick stuff as far as suspension components and it hooks pretty hard and goes straight as an arrow. Very easy to drive.

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

Wagons are cool!

Good luck with the project, Dan! :)

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

http://www.powerhouseperformance.ca/...products_id=68
Try this web site for the parts you are looking for regarding the body roll amd solid body mounts.

JimmieC

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

My mommy didnt need no fancy shmancy brakes to win with that car !

Re: '69 Chevelle master cylinder question
 

H and R Parts and Stuff makes a nice anti roll bar for the A bodies.Might not need it on a small block stocker though.You can get by by just welding a plate on the bottom of your upper control arms.You can also just use the stock rubber bushings also.