[paintman]

OOOOOOOKKKKKKK, so my buddy (who makes his living as a mechanic), and I spent about 6 hours working on the brakes. Here is what we did.

First I took the booster and MC out of the truck to measure the gap between the booster rod and the bullet inside the MC, and check the bore size. Turns out it looks to be a 1" bore MC as it mics just over 1" but not 1-1/8 for sure.

Turns out I had 4mm of gap. way to big. Only problem was there seemed to be no way to adjust the booster rod. At the very end of the booster rod was a small fitting that looked just like a bleeder valve only with no hole. Even if I could have gotten it cracked loose, there was not enough thread inside the fitting to turn it out enough to make the rod longer. Furthermore, there was no jam nut on the back side of this fitting so it seemed to me that even if I did turn the fitting out, it would eventually just turn back in until it bottomed out on it's own threads.

Soooooo, here is what we did. We pulled the bullet out and set 2 -10/32 flat washers down in the bore behind the bullet. These washers turned out to be the perfect size for the bore. we tried 3 washers but that was to much and did not allow me to tighten the MC back down onto the booster. So we just used 2 washers which left me with a clearance of .83mm between the booster rod and the bullet.

I also found a leak in the brass fitting inside the rear residual valve so I swapped it out for a new #10 just to be on the safe side. Also pulled the check valve out of the booster and checked that and all was well.

After putting everything back together we bled the brakes again and ran about quart of fluid through the lines. All that provided me with a much better pedal with the engine off then what I had previously. Then we went around a triple checked all my fittings for any leaks, and found none. BONE DRY!!!!!!!!

We then pulled the rear wheels off and adjusted up on the rear pads. This is a bit of a pain in the ass because for some reason my backing plates have no access hole to get into the star adjuster. So we just adjusted the pads until we couldn't get the drums on and then backed off 2 clicks and shoved the drums back on. Definately tight enough because we couldn't turn the drums by hand.

So next it was on to starting the engine and seeing what we had. Well.... I can say that I certainly have better braking, but I still get the 2" sloppy drop in the pedal. honestly there is absolutely no pedal for the first 2 inches of travel. As soon as we trun the engine off, I get a good pedal again from the top of the throw to the bottom.

So first thing we did was take the vacumm line off, plug it and went for a test ride. NO GOOD! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! DANGER WILL ROBINSON! seriously it was like tring to stop a train. it toook about 100 yards to stop going 20 mph.

So we went back into the garge and reconnected the vacuum and got decent brakes again. I would say about 80% of what I would like to have.

So then we messed around with the prop valve and got the truck to where I think it is safe to drive and definately throws your head forward when you step on the brakes but to me that first 2" of drop just does not feel comfortable. Perhaps it is just a left over from my racing days when I liked a real quick pedal in that O **** situation. But it still isn't even close to my work truck or daily jeep driver with good pedal response.

I am curious to know the inner workings of the booster. That is to say is there an adjust on the front side push rod that connects with the pedal. I know I can turn the heim in and out to raise and lower the pedal but that does not have effect on the drop in the pedal. I'm thinking there has to be some kind of gap between the front pushrod and the rear pushrod.....Hmmmmmm

So that's where I am at I have decent brakes. good enough to drive around town but something is just not right. So maybe a bigger MC or perhaps a smaller MC I have no clue either way big pain in the ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!