I am the new and very,very proud owner of a 1936 Ford 5 window coupe. The car has been built as a street rod with newer v8 and automatic. Car has disc brakes on the front and drums on the rear with 8" Ford rear axle, utilizing a dual master cylinder. My question is: What can I do to improve the stopping power of the brakes? When bleeding the system, it seems that none of the bleeders have enough pressure to "squirt" fluid out, like a normal bleeding process. The brake pedal is not "soft", but it takes a lot of foot pressure to stop the car, and it does not stop good. I realize that it is not a power brake system, but, I have had other cars over the years with manual brakes, and, they stopped OK. Anyone have any ideas?
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Welcome Jack to the VFF
You may want to check for a restricted brake hose to one or more of the wheels. This is very common on cars that are not used much and by flushing the system completely with dot 5 synthetic after making the repairs usually helps it from reoccurring or having seal leakage issues at the calipers or the wheel cylinders. Jack up the axles and have a helper depress the brake pedal. Each wheel should hold firmly if not, there very well could be a restricted hose to it. That could also cause the fluid to not have good pressure when bleeding as your experiencing. If you do find a pressure issue try bleeding the line in front of the brake hose to see if there is more pressure at that point, which basically confirms a restriction...
Just something easy to check that is free...3~ Tudor's & 1~ Coupe
Henry Ford said,
"It's all nuts and bolts"
"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
Mitch's Auto Service ctr -
WELCOME to VFF Jack.
Something else I have found with older juice brakes is that the master cylinders have a habit of gunking up in and around the pressure areas. If you are going to change over to Dot 5 you really need to give the whole system a thorough cleaning before using the Dot 5. Just be real sure not to get any of the Dot 3/4 on paint as it will eat any and all types of paint !!
One other thing is if you can determine the age of the master cylinder, not ALL double master cylinders were made for disk brakes, it may take an upgrade there as well.You wana look waaay far up da road and plan yer route because the brakes are far more of a suggestion than a command!Comment
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I think you have to big of pistons in the master cylinders. The master cylinder may have been made for power brakes.Comment
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The smaller the bore of the master cylinder, the MORE pressure it puts out.
Bill W.Comment
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Residue from Juice brakes on a Vicky. Removing the hydraulics from the car. Master cyl. on the firewall. Evidence of leaking fluid for years, Look at the "quality" work done on the master cylinder installation..png "sad")
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This gallery has 1 photos.01-23-2018, 09:41 PM -
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