Just trying to make it road worthy (1958 Cadillac Eureka)

[Dickey]

Disc brake happening:

As you can see, I wasn't able to mount my reservoir where I originally intended. No big thing, but I've had the master cylinder in and out of this car at least 20 times for all the fitting and refitting details.


btw - the mess on my frame rail is a lesson in doing more than finger tight for brake line fittings, hehe. I got in, pressed the pedal a few times and thought "shit, this pedal sucks." Then heard the dripping and climbed out to see the mess I made. Retightened and now I have a solid pedal but damn it needs a booster.

//and a 2psi residual pressure valve I'm expecting to arrive Thursday.

[Dickey]

New master cylinder mocked up, probably will end up rotating 180 degrees since I plan to put the reservoir towards the fender side of the airbox. I intend to weld a small piece of flat stock between the gaps from the two pieces of steel bolted to the MC. That should make it sturdy enough to get the front discs online and useful. If I like it, I will use the resulting flange as a pattern for making something for holding a small booster inline with it. I'll likely not keep the offset if I find a better alternative to the heim joint that was handy for connecting to the bell crank.







btw - last night I installed the new brake on the passenger side. Took a lot better group of pictures that might be useful to someone who is attempting such a thing on a 57-60 Cadillac, basically just stopping after each step to snap a pic - http://www.wheresmyjeffdickey.com/im...se/DiscBrakes/

[Dickey]

Getting closer;

Will take enough pics for a legitimate write up tomorrow when I do the passenger side.

snagged some shots of the old brake booster setup too:

whole booster/mc assembly


all kinds of awesome in there


a shot of the pedal pushrod and bell crank assembly with the pedal up


what it looks like with the pedal to the floor


overhead shot

mostly because I was really impressed with the flash quality on this phone's camera

[Dickey]

Your last few pictures explained it, I get it now. The hydro boost for the 57's is two separate pieces and not one piece like I'm used to with diesels. Your smaller cylinder, that the pushrod from the pedal actuates, must drive hydraulic pressure to the booster on the airbox that forces a separate piston forward to apply pressure to the wheel cylinders.

Mine is much different than that. I have only one master cylinder mounted on top of a vacuum booster. My pedal actuates a bell crank instead of a hydraulic cylinder on the frame. I've removed the treadle vac booster and master cylinder and I'll make sure to take a picture when I'm in my shop again now that the bell crank is easy to see. Thank you for the extra pictures and I'll be sure to follow up with some of my own after I get the disc setup working.

[spastic_chicken]

201485_10150223293074203_515759202_8755214_5556655_o.jpg210161_10150222546889203_515759202_8750691_3826981_o.jpg191084_10150168918159203_515759202_8495666_5136395_o.jpg172855_10150168917904203_515759202_8495661_27070_o.jpg193677_10150168918294203_515759202_8495669_5489646_o.jpg209594_10150223296574203_515759202_8755233_2560225_o.jpg

[spastic_chicken]

My brake setup is a little different than yours and I've got a question regarding yours about that. On mine, the brake pedal has a pushrod for the master cylinder that is directly behind the pad itself (bottom of the pedal). As I am accustomed, the brake pedal generally has the pushrod several inches up from the foot pad attached to the pedal arm so as to offer some mechanical advantage when pressing the pedal. On my 58, this mechanical advantage is accomplished by the use of a bell crank assembly directly under the airbox that directs the forward motion of the pedal pushrod directly up and down in front of the air box into the vacuum booster. To which, the master cylinder sits on top of all that. From your pictures, it appears that your pushrod may be done the same as mine but there must be some kind of lever that translates the motion into the back of the booster assembly. Do you have any pictures of that by chance?

We have the same set up. I have a really small master cylinder mounted on the frame, just ahead of the brake pedal. I've cut all that out and bought a universal hotrod brake pedal set up with a polished master cylinder. I like the idea of the remote mount master cylinder you got. Please take some pictures and let me know how that works out for you.

I'll see if I can drum up some pix.

[Dickey]

So I stopped by the parts house on the way home with the list that Scarebird sent. $320 later I've got everything (or at least will have it tomorrow) I need from the hoses to the castle nut. Would have had the driver's side rotor mounted this evening except that both I and the parts guy missed a detail regarding wheel bearing # A5 vs A2. A2 is considerably smaller than A5. The outers were ok though. My calipers won't show up until tomorrow anyway so I'll just exchange the bum ones I got for what I need and I'll be good to go. Did get some pics in case I ever try to forget the amount of turd that was tied up in the front suspension:

to give an idea of how filthy this thing is:



Goodness on the way:



Mr fat nasty rotor waiting for an inner bearing and wheel seal:



These caliper brackets are top shelf and I recommend them to anyone who's considering the upgrade for their Cadillac. The new master cylinder ought to arrive Wednesday or Thursday so I'm expecting to have a functioning brake pedal (to the front wheels anyway) in time for Labor day.

[Dickey]

My Scarebird caliper brackets arrived today. I've already priced out the stuff needed to make them useful and all told, with new components from Advance, the entire kit will only cost $550-$600. I realize I could save some money by sourcing some of the details from a junkyard but I can't tolerate that much uncertainty with regards to brakes. Last night I disassembled the driver's side brake drum assembly. After seeing how internally corroded the wheel cylinder was in addition to how utterly useless the brake lines will be with all the corrosion I found, I'm going to forgoe my original plan to get the drums working and just install the disc setup right away.

[Dickey]

More in common still, my scarebird caliper brackets shipped this past Tuesday as I recall. They haven't arrived yet, I'm expecting them on Monday though.

My brake setup is a little different than yours and I've got a question regarding yours about that. On mine, the brake pedal has a pushrod for the master cylinder that is directly behind the pad itself (bottom of the pedal). As I am accustomed, the brake pedal generally has the pushrod several inches up from the foot pad attached to the pedal arm so as to offer some mechanical advantage when pressing the pedal. On my 58, this mechanical advantage is accomplished by the use of a bell crank assembly directly under the airbox that directs the forward motion of the pedal pushrod directly up and down in front of the air box into the vacuum booster. To which, the master cylinder sits on top of all that. From your pictures, it appears that your pushrod may be done the same as mine but there must be some kind of lever that translates the motion into the back of the booster assembly. Do you have any pictures of that by chance?

This evening I took my vacuum booster/mc assembly out and looked over how it was done. After some consideration I ordered a single circuit Wilwood remote reservoir master cylinder from Speedway Motors as well as the necessary heim joint and 10psi rpv. This master cylinder can be mounted vertically and with a 1" bore should be adequate for use without any power assist (neither of my 55's have power brakes even after I converted them to discs). I considered the tandem one they offer but it only does a 50/50 volume movement, cost almost twice as much and I'm not sure if I'll be getting rid of the drum brakes in the rear. While I'm waiting for that to show up I'm going to go ahead and tear into the front drums and get them in working order. The local parts house has a rebuild kit for the wheel cylinders though I have no idea how bad off the rest of the brake drum assembly might be. I figure if I can get at least the front drums working, I'll plug the port on the distribution block that would normally feed to the rears and be able to maneuver the car around the yard and in the shop.



//Otto, that cracked me up. I laid that up there because I thought it might help get the heat dissapated more quickly so I could return to work on it sooner that evening. Didn't pan out unfortunately.

[spastic_chicken]

IMAG0778.jpg
219873_10150222048249203_515759202_8748084_8131001_o.jpg258393_10150274614024203_515759202_9274249_4233552_o.jpg

[spastic_chicken]

Actually, after looking at your introduction thread, you're going to be in the same boat. There is an airbox bolted to your firewall. Here's some pictures of what I'm talking about...

[spastic_chicken]

The firewall on my 57 Eureka has a been a pain in the ass for brakes. Mine has a airbox where there should be firewall. I had to put a delete plate in.

This is who I used for my disc brake conversion, and I love it!

http://www.scarebird.com/index.php?id=1

[Otto Baron]

.

One of the problems I can see is not only that the radiator fan is obviously an aftermarket device, but it should be located between the radiator, and the engine block!

[Dickey]

heh, yeah it is the newest car by over 20 years. The OD green bike with drag bars is a 2001 though. I'm looking to get a WWII scout bike look out of it when all is said and done.

[tonytheskin]

Appears the sweet DeLoreon is the newest car you have in there.

All look to be sweet rides.