Soft Brake Pedal

[Broncotj0]

Guys I did a chevy disk brake conversion a few years ago and added a '79 camper special MC when I did the upgrade. I never did get a great pedal feel out of this combo but I delt with it. I was out wheeling a few weeks back and the pedal was even worse than it had been before (hadn't been wheeling in over a year). When I would be crawling down a hillside I would have to pump the brakes to keep it from the floor. I have checked and I don't have any leaks, pads are good, and I have plenty of fluid. I am seeing if you might think my MC is going bad? Or what else might be the problem. Do I go Hydroboost? Let me know what your thoughts are. Thanks

 

[Apogee]

If I'm not mistaken, the "79 camper special" is a 1-1/16" bore master cylinder, correct? Power or manual brakes? Have you bleed them recently?

If a master cylinder is bypassing fluid internally, the easiest way to check is to apply the brakes with moderate, firm pressure and wait for the pedal to sink. If it does and you don't have any external fluid leaks, then you've found your problem. You'll want to bleed the brakes first to get any air out of the system, otherwise your pedal is going to be too spongy to tell the difference.

Given your tire size, hydroboost would probably be a good option for you, but not necessary IMO.

 

[broncnaz]

Probably a bad seal in the MC. hboost wont fix a soft pedal that you have to pump if the pedal was hard and you had little stopping power then hboost would help.

 

[kc15842]

If you never had a solid pedal, adjust the rear self adjusters and bleed the system again. The previous post are correct they point to the MC if you slowly lose pressure the MC is leaking internally.

 

[Broncotj0]

Thanks guys, what I meant about the combo not having a great pedal I'm just talking about the overall stopping power. I currently have manual brakes and have been looking at doing a HB setup. With the HB I would be getting a new MC. So to solve my MC problem I would just change the whole setup.

 

[chuck]

When you put the chevy disc brakes on did you grind on the knuckles enough? Are the calipers on up right? Does the rear part of the M/C feed the front brakes? Also did you adjust the rear brakes?