Spent the weekend fighting the brakes… after much trial/error, finally got the push rod to engage the front brakes… life shouldn’t be this hard but there it is. Need to bleed the brakes and clean up the toe board where I ended up making a longer hole than I needed. Idea was to cut it for the pedal to travel enough without bottoming out. Since achieved with a longer push rod, moved the master up in the bracket to reduce rod angle…fun stuff
String around the pullies for fan belt length came up a bit short.. so the belt I ordered was… wait for it… also short. Now waiting on a 44.5 and a 45 inch belt.. possibly getting smarter as I’m pretty sure a 44.5 will fit but ordering the 45 at the same time seams like a bright idea…44 inch belt was oh so close.
Last edited by 32vsnake; Mon Jun 05 2023 12:49 AM.
Hot rodded 40 pickup.... in the dark of night she’s a looker.
Sir. Just convince yourself how fun it is to have brakes & a powerplant that cools properly rather than pay someone's excessive labor rate. Oh, & your pretty modest using words like "unskilled" in your journal title. I'd like to know what "skilled" means then cause I looked in on your journal entries & it's full of beautiful work. Thanks 32vsnake. V/r, Nick
Now if only my skill level would let me figure out how to make the darn brakes work… update is as follows… still fighting with the brakes. To be fair, I have a history of struggling with brake setups… it’s my Kryptonite.
Something more akin to my ability, changed over my wire looms from red to black
Cleaned up the wiring to the ballast resistor and ripped out my front brake lines… just to prove that there wasn’t a pinched line or blockage
Last edited by 32vsnake; Wed Jun 07 2023 04:52 AM.
Hot rodded 40 pickup.... in the dark of night she’s a looker.
Sorted the pedal pivot/rod angle issues, pulled the master, the rod and the mounting brackets and the rod is now parallel... attempted to blead the brakes and failed again at bleeding the brakes. Figured out that something in the system was sucking air in, turns out the corvette style dual master sucks...literally. Disassembled the master and it looks like the seals aren't doing a very good job of sealing.
The master was a new one of off ebay and I'm now leery about any of the "not made in NA" parts... So I ordered a Wilwood 260-8555-BK. Now I just need to patiently wait for it to show up in the next week or so. I hate brakes
Last edited by 32vsnake; Sat Jun 10 2023 10:18 PM.
Hot rodded 40 pickup.... in the dark of night she’s a looker.
Was having issues with the air horn that I picked up from amazon. It worked roughly 2-3 times before it started making less horn noise and more of a grinding noise. With nothing to lose, the sealed compressor got dismantled. Found a broken plastic fin that wouldn't keep the "blades" spinning and it had basically wedged itself into the housing...sweet, another new parts failure for my growing pile of junk.
The answer …of course is to pull out an air horn compressor that Dad used 45yrs ago and has been sitting for the last 40yrs. Connected it up and off it went. So the truck has turning indicators, a horn and wipers. Now it just needs some brakes and it will have all the modern safety features
Hot rodded 40 pickup.... in the dark of night she’s a looker.
"What about 3 point seat belts?" says the guy who had his 3 point belt equipped (and in use) '57 GMC T-boned, rolled and totaled. Only damage to me was a small scrape on my left elbow.
'57 GMC 102, Original 347 V8, HydraMatic, 3.08 rear gear, added A/C, disk front brakes, HEI, AFB carb, '98 Honda Black Currant paint. T-boned and totaled 10/13 '52 GMC 152 Stake Bed, Original 228, SM420, added A/C, disk front brakes, '67 Chev 3.55 rear gear. Gets used as a real truck.
Finally got the fan belt sorted.. ended up with a 43.5 inch belt. Fit and alignment are both pretty good.
The wilwood master showed up tonight… so tomorrow will hopefully be a win. If I still have braking issues after the install… where’s the section in the forum for listing project vehicles 4 sale
Last edited by 32vsnake; Sat Jun 17 2023 02:16 AM.
Hot rodded 40 pickup.... in the dark of night she’s a looker.
