The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop anyone install a brake power booster on an apache?

Was at a car show tonight and a guy w a 57 chevy convertible showed me his brake power booster he just installed. He said it improved his drum brakes a great deal. I am wondering if there is such a booster kit for the task force trucks? Mine is a 3/4 ton. Thanks for any info.

Classic Parts has them as do many others.
I put one of these on for a customer once and I did not like it. I seemed to make the brakes to touchy.

I am still curious, since touchy brakes are probably better than hardly no brakes at all. Can you tell me a little bit about the installation, type you used, how big a deal it was to put in? Thanks again.

I put a MANUAL dual master cylinder conversion kit on my stock 55 task force. To me, it felt almost like a power conversion...pedal pressure was just right. Not too hard, but not too soft. I later converted to disc on the front and decided to try the manual unit before installing power. After driving it, I left it manual because it still felt good. Installation was bolt in. You do have to separate the front and back brake line and add check valves.

Hugh

Basically what you would be looking for is a booster/dual master cylinder kit designed for drum brakes. These kits are available from various after market suppliers. It is installed under the floor and replaces your stock master cylinder. You will also have to run some new brake lines and connect to a vacuum source. Be aware that this is not a substitute for bad brakes. That era 3/4 ton had 12" brakes and when working correctly were fairly good. The big weakness is the master cylinder so an upgrade would be a big improvement. The conversions I have done are by no means "touchy" and work fine in all conditions.
Fred

Here is some background on my specific truck: I had the rear drums turned, the fronts were not as bad, so I left them be. I rebuild the wheel cylinders, since they were in bad shape, replaced one of them. Put in a new master cylinder. Put in new brake shoes. Replaced the brake lines. When it was all said and done, the only benefit I could see was my brake fluid wasn't leaking out of one of the wheel cylinders anymore. Other than that, I didn't seen any big difference in the brakes. I was pretty disappointed, given all the work I put into and the cost of parts. I am going to try and bleed the brakes one more time, just to make sure that isn't the problem. In addition I am going to have someone look at the star wheel adjusters to see if that can improve it. If none of this works, I will be looking at the booster/dual master cylinder kit mentioned above. It doesn't look like converting a 3/4 ton to disc brakes is an easy task from what I can see. Any thoughts after reading this additional info???

I did all those same things to my 3/4 ton '59, and same thing - it wasn't tremendously better. Until I replaced the tires. I had stock the size road tires with their narrow tread. When I went to new wheels with BFG's, I could suddenly stop VERY well with everything else all stock.

The stock rims on my truck were 17 1/2 inch rims, and only one tire was still good. Replacement 17 1/2 inch tires was pretty spendy since it is such an odd size tire. So I found replacement 8 lug 16 inch rims. The tread width appears to be the same as the old tires. Do you still think that is making a big difference? When you say you went to new wheels, what size rims and tires did you put on it? When you say "with BFG's" what do you mean? Big F***ing something??? lol

LOL - BFG = BF Goodrich. I got some American Racing 16x7 wheels and put 235/75 tires on them. The tread is a little more than an inch extra over my stock tires, so it doesn't sound like it would make a huge difference, but it did. I no longer have to steer out of grooves in the road, and I don't have to madly correct for a slide when I stop in an emergency. I know it's more than just the tread width (tread pattern and a softer compound also help I think), but whatever the main reason is, the truck drives like a whole new vehicle with the new stuff.

I bought my '58 Apache 1/2 ton longbed about 2 years ago. The prior owner had installed a power booster/dual master cylinder setup under the floor; I think it's from Classic Industries. It still has drum brakes. The brakes are very touchy but I've pretty much gotten used to them now. I've thought about reducing the vacuum being drawn from the carb to make them less touchy and I might do that at some point. All in all, I think it's a good upgrade. You may need to modify the exhaust slightly to get around the bigger unit under the floor (mine's a 283 with dual exhaust).

Steve

Just installed this kit on my 59 Apache 3600.Drove it on the road for first time today up to 40mph (undergoing resto)I have all new brake lines, shoes, wheel cylinders (all orig type stuff)Easy install, seperate front/rear lines. No valves needed for all drum brakes
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