Brake pedal travel

OZgreen69

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 24, 2016
Messages
220
Location
Perth Australia
If you own a Vette with a not boosted system, 1inch master cylinder, could you let me know the pedal travel that you have before your car actually brakes ?

On mine it appears that I need to push nearly 2 inch before something happen. I am not complaining about no brakes here, just that I not really comfortable with a long pedal.

Thanks in advance.

PS: Did someone ever tried a 1" 1/8 master cylinder on a car with no brake booster ??
 
My assembly manual for a 68 has the pedal travel at:

"Brake pedal must support a 80lb load after traveling a maximum of 2 1/4". Note: if 2 1/4" is exceeded brakes should be checked for proper bleed."
 
Thanks BB,

Well ?? It should be right then ? And this remind me, to look a bit more often into the assy manual for answers.
 
If you own a Vette with a not boosted system, 1inch master cylinder, could you let me know the pedal travel that you have before your car actually brakes ?

On mine it appears that I need to push nearly 2 inch before something happen. I am not complaining about no brakes here, just that I not really comfortable with a long pedal.

Thanks in advance.

PS: Did someone ever tried a 1" 1/8 master cylinder on a car with no brake booster ??

Haven't tried a 1 1/8" m/c on a non-pb car, but the math says it should reduce the (non slop/clearance) pedal travel by 25% (and obviously the pedal effort up that same amount).
 
Replacing the old rubber brake lines with ss overbraid flex lines (4) seemed to improve my 68 with manual brakes. May vary depending on the condition of the rubber lines.
 
Hello 69427,
Yes this is what I am talking about, I don't mind if the pedal feels harder as I find the actual a bit on the soft side, well! this is a street car set up.

Hi rtj,
Yes all the rubber lines are S/S now.

On a side note, I lifted the rear of the car quite high in the air and observed the brake fluid in the M/C while pushing the pedal slowly, and yes some air bubbles escaped from the front of the M/C resulting in a touch harder pedal.
 
Stock manual master & pedal assembly... Mine was about the same; 2" before any real braking occurred. Pad material and temperature made a big difference though. To also reply to your other thread, I ran Hawk HP Plus pads on stock rotors. A light duty track pad, but definitely needed warm up time before the desired "bite" came in, which required more pedal movement. Minimal rotor consumption, but mine is not a race car, just a track toy that I drove to work every day :amused:
In regards to your larger master, I was quite pleased with the pedal ratio and 1" bore master because of the ease of threshold braking. A larger master may lessen the initial play, but narrows the effective threshold brake "zone". Whether this matters or not is pretty much based on your skill level and seat time with this setup
 
Thank you for this comprehensive reply. I will know more ( I hope ! ), after spending this coming weekend at the track .
 
you can try making the pushrod a bit longer but remember you need 3/8" between the rod and the piston inside the MC, I had a 1-1/8" master on my car it was like pushing on concrete
 
Well, that was a good weekend. Not much brakes but I was prepared for it. I just drove accordingly and still had a big smile on my face at the end of each session, and the wife was happy too, soooo... Winner !

Hey Red,
I will try some real pads before trying another M/C, but this is on the map.
 
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