Dissassembly

Disconnected the brake line from the master, removed the vacuum line, removed the two clevis pins from the bellcrank and took the 4 bolts out to lift the master and booster unit out. There seem to be 5 bolts holding the bracket for the booster to the car. I got 4 of them out and the last one seems to be far enough down I'll need to access it from underneath. Once the bracket is out, I will be able to think about how I am going to modify it to accept the new 7" booster.

Brake Plans

OK, here is the current plan of attack on my nasty brake problem: Phase one, I will rip out the old Moraine booster and master; replace with Tuff Stuff 7" booster and MPB remote fill dual circuit master.

I will split the plumbing to have dual, front and rear systems with tubing from In Line or Summit.

With phase one done, I have a decision to make. I can stop right there and run the system with the original 4-drum system from the factory, or I can utilize the new components to their fullest and begin phase two: converting the front drums to discs using a ScareBird kit, an MPB proportioning valve to balance the drums to the discs, and a Wilwood 10# residual valve in the drum circuit. I am already in process of obtaining the parts to go ahead with the ScareBird conversion, and plan to go with it. But I reserve the right to change my mind and stop after phase one.

Addendum: Here is the pedal linkage I have to contend with unless I want to rip it out and convert the car to a conventional "swing pedal".

Interesting Brake Problem

"Lucille" decided to act up on me today as I was driving her around on some errands. I came to a stop light so I stepped on the brake pedal, and it seemed like the pedal kind of pulled itself down and locked the brakes. I wasn't on a very busy street so I just waved folks around me. They were really, really locked too! I tried to stomp on the gas in gear to see if I could at least force her to the curb, but nothing doing! So I sat there a minute and fumbled for my AAA card. But meanwhile I hooked my foot under the pedal and pulled up, and while nothing happened at first, after a minute or so, the pedal came up and I was able to move. I made my way home making absolute minimal use of the brake and then only with a very light touch. Once in my driveway I stepped on the pedal a bit harder and, sure enough, pedal lock. I was able to pull the pedal up and lock it several times to verify repeatability. So now I have to figure out what's going on and how to cure it.

Update: I'm pretty sure the culprit is the vacuum booster. It is the Moraine unit and was supposedly rebuilt before I bought the car, about 3 years ago. Now that underhood temps have dropped, the sticking pedal is harder to duplicate, but it will stick for several seconds before letting go even now. But, only when the engine is running! Switch off the engine and pump a couple of times to use residual vacuum and presto, no more stick.

Now to decide if I want to rebuild or try an re-engineered approach.

Fuel Level Sender

With the new opening in the trunk, servicing the fuel sender is easy. The replacement is a 0-30 ohm unit obtained through Amazon.com. Same unit I had gotten from Cooper for my '49er. You have to measure, cut, adjust, bend, trim, crimp and screw down. But it's all easy and I am not so concerned about 100% accuracy. I usually fill the tank when it gets to 1/4 anyway. Seems to be working well. I'll go top off the tank and see where the gauge reads in the next few days.

Trunk Floor

I've known there is a problem with the fuel tank as I can smell gas pretty strongly when I top it off. The fuel level doesn't seen to be reading correctly now either. So I figured probably both of these symptoms to require me to get to the fuel level sender. My usual trick is to open an access panel in the trunk and that's what I worked on doing today. Only now that I've cut the panel out, the sender looks dry as a bone. It probably will still need to be swapped out, but now I have to do some more digging to find the source of the smell.

Odometer Check

[14230] Insurance company likes to know if I'm staying within my mileage limits.