Manual Brakes or Hydroboost - Help me choose

Twin_Turbo said:

That oddly shaped hole is only present in the steel insert glued in there, not in the fiberglass at all! It's shaped like that so that the same steel insert can be used on both style cars, same firewall apart from drilling pattern and bolted down pedal box. The reason for the top to be narrower is that the hole that the master engages in is much smaller than the large hole for the brake booster harmonica seal. Those pics are misleading to say the least. The outlined part is a steel plate! I know, I took all that stuff apart when I fixed my firewall and bonded it all back together again later. I'll see if I can find my old pics, it's clearly visible on them

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That is funnier than my harmonica balancer concept.....:lol::lol:

It is by no means impossible to convert a manual brake pedal assembly to a power brake pedal assembly. Here is a picture of my car that was originally a power brake car and shown is a manual brake pedal assembly that has been modified. Notice the two nuts welded onto the bottom of the pedal bracket. I drilled these out for clearance with the booster studs. The two holes at the top were added for the top booster studs. Notice the brake striker bracket mounted in the top hole of the brake arm. Notice the open hole for the clevis below that.

TT is right, those pictures are deceiving. There are no weldnuts on the bulkhead plate on a C3 (picture on the right).

73 Mike said:

I also didn't realize that the manual brake pedal assembly had 4 holes (two studs from the inside and two bolts from the outside if the pic is accurate). I assumed that my pedal assembly would hat to have been replaced if switched from manula to power, but perhaps not.

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Here is a picture of a power brake pedal assembly and a manual brake pedal assembly. Both have 4 holes. The power has through holes for the booster studs and the manual has two studs in square holes to attach the master cylinder and two weldnuts on the bottom for retaining screws.

No question but that mine matches the one on the left. No square holes. No raised section in the middle and all four holes are uniform. Thanks for the pic. I think you've posted it before because I recognised it the moment I saw it.

The one on the left is a power brake pedal assembly.

We're probably past the point of beating this dead horse, but looking at the picture of the two assemblies again, something else occured to me.

I think TT said earlier that the pedals themselves are different. Do you think the pics are representative? The manual one seems more centered in the bracket and and even seems to be mounted closer to the center.

The pedals for both are exactly the same. The picture is centered over the one on the right making the one on the left "look" different.

BBShark said:

The pedals for both are exactly the same. The picture is centered over the one on the right making the one on the left "look" different.

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Yeh, the pedals change between stick and auto....I dumped the muncie and have a small pedal with the 200 4r auto....yet another 'funny looking' alteration....

:waxer:

I said the pedal boxes are different, you can see it in Larrys pics, the brake and clutch pedal is the same. The only difference is the swap over of the clevis mount and brake light switch bracket.

The brake pedals for the manual and auto are not the same, the auto pedal is larger in the pad area but that's all. The only other minute difference is the auto pedal box assembly has a pivot pin, whereas the manual has the pin welded to the clutch pedal.

I vote for getting what you have working. Heck it'll be easier for you vs. the job I had changing over from auto to manual pedal assy and hydraboost all in one go.

I run the hydraboost on my 80 for street driving and track days and found it to be much better that the over boosted stock system. Pedal feel was better than expected.

It occured to me while on vacation last week that I never really closed this out. I thought about it while riding a horse around Lake Tahoe. I did not, however, buy the horse so sorry to the four that voted that way.

I had some time to myself on Father's Day so switched the clevis to the lower bolt hole. Just from the feel, it looked like the "hitch" in the return was gone, so I took it for a spin. Couldn't go far because the radiator was out in preparation for the new motor install. There looks to be a good reason for these motors not to be air cooled, but I digress.

It seems to me that this solved the return problem. Again, I didn't go very far, nor very fast but I didn't have to pull back on the pedal at all to get the brakes to release. It felt fine, though again, I didn't have much opportunity to test the road feel.

The plan is to leave the hydroboost in until I get a chance to really test it out. All I need to finish the job is a brake switch striker and that should be here by the end of the week.

Thank you all for your input and I'll let you know how it turns out.