Re: Manual Brake Options/Discussion
yup, i'm planning on making a nice booster hole cover. Someone wants me to make a hyrdaboost cover anyway, so it'll be roughly the same thing. And yea that stock s10 one with the rolled lips is super ugly. :lol:
I'm going to look into proper pedal length/leverage like you did mike.
Really? Who's making ya the hydraboost cover? You can PM me if ya wanna keep it "secret" :lol:.
Getting the proper pivot point on the brake arm is easier than falling in love. GM used the same brake pedal arm for manual and power brakes. The only thing that is different is where the pivot was mounted. On the manual brake arm, the pivot is one hole higher. The hole is already there so you don't even have to drill it...
From the factory, the pivot is crushed into place. I could have tried to salvage it and get it welded in place but I didn't want to risk it popping out and leaving me brakeless. So I used a modiifed grade 8 bolt and nut.
I decked the nut to the same thickness as the lip on the stock pivot so that I could pinch the arm once it was tightened on both sides prior to getting welded on both sides. This had to be done because you can't buy a nut with the proper thickness in a 1/2 X 13 thread. Even a jam nut is to thick... It also helped to keep the spacing the same. Everything is good and tight, had to thread the hole in the brake arm 1/2 X 13 to get the modified bolt installed. I cut the head off the bolt, squared it, chamfered the end and then drilled it for the pin in a seperate operation. I made a block at work to hold it in the vise when I was modifying it. The pic above was taken during mock up. The excess threads were cut off, it was glass bead blasted and then painted with POR15 after I got it back from the welder.
Oh and yet other detail that you will have to contend with is the rod itself that goes from the brake pedal arm to the master cylinder. You can't just use the old one from the power brakes. My bud and I got our setups out of the junk yard so we got the rod and cheesy cover plates from the donor trucks. I think that is was about six years time between my bud getting his set up and me finding mine. Trucks with manual brakes are a bitch to find by me...
