ssbc brake kit problems

[D.C.]

Hi Guys,
  Looks like alot of talk about SSBC disc conversions here. I am having a similar problem with it. The car is a 69 charger 440 auto. Good pedal feel, but no brakes. Used the ssbc supplied m/c which their tech line says is for a 70,s and up A body. The car had power drums and nothing with the stock booster. Got a Napa booster for a disc front drum rear car and no change. Lines are bleed properly although the rears will not gravity bleed. I had to use the old pump and hold method. I put a gauge on the engine to measure vacuum and only got 11 inches with the car at idle in park from the manifold. Hooked up an ssbc electric vacuum pump and no real change. Has anybody figured out the right combination here? Also what is normal vacuum for a 440, 11 inches seems way...way low to me.

[D.C.]

Oh Yeah. The M/C from ssbc is a 1 and 1/32 inch bore. I have read here that guys are dropping to a 15/16ths bore size. Does this small a change really fix this?

[firefighter3931]

The master cylinder supplied with the kit is incorrect. I tried it and had no braking....not happy ! The other problem is the factory drum brake distribution block which is not designed for use with disc brakes up front. I ditched the distribution block and installed an adjustable proportioning valve with a residual pressure valve for the rear brakes. The front brakes are tee'd off the master cylinder. I used a 15/16 bore master and it worked much better but still not perfect.

Speaking at length with Willwood we decided on a 1in bore master cylinder with a large capacity reservoir. I'll be installing that soon.

Your vacuum seems low unless you have an aftermarket cam or it's out of tune. 


Ron

[D.C.]

Went to a new master from a 73 dart with power disc fronts bore size .96 inches or roughly 15/16ths. This seemed to help somewhat, but not enough to give this car a reliable, safe brake system. I also hooked up an electric vacuum pump and no change. I will remove the stock dist. block next but any other suggestions in case this doesn't work Thanks

[D.C.]

Well, I replaced the distribution valve with a simple brake line tee and a straight coupler to the rear line. The brake circuit is now t'ed direct from the master to the front calipers and straight into the prop valve for the rears. No change in brake force. Spoke with SSBC today again and they say to go back to the 1 1/32 inch bore with the original booster and the vac pump. I admit I didn't try this combo, but I can't see this helping me considering my current setup is a dual booster a 15/16th bore M/C and a vac pump. Manuel or Hydroboost is looking better and better at this point. What is the best way to go manuel? i.e. which pedal and master combo? I currently have the stock pedal with the z link brake pedal linkage. Is there a certain supplier or year of car I will need to go this way?

[b5blue]

I'll be posting results from changing my 70 Charger over to manual brakes soon with photos of the parts needed. It's all in and working fine, I think you have a crappy booster from what you describe, been "there" 2 times in the past. When my booster started acting up again I checked and NAPA uses A-1 Cardone boosters now, not good from my past experience with their parts.

[Calif240]

I have a front and rear SSBC kit that I am installing. I talked to SSBC, as I have the booster (power drums OE) being rebuilt. They said that I need to purchase SSBC part 0400-A which is a 1 1/8 inch bore master cylinder and use my stock brake booster. They said that it didn't matter whether I used the Bendix Booster (Power discs OE) or mine, that both would work, but that I needed 1 1/8 inch MC. Sounds like each different tech says something different.

[bill440rt]

Just an FYI, despite SSBC's claims that their rear disc brake kit works right with the stock parking brake cables, guess what?? It WON'T!!
I have a 99% new set of modified "stock" rear brake cables from Inline Tube, that were special ordered just a few inches longer in order to work with the SSBC rear brakes. I installed them, and the parking brake then worked fine. They have less than 30 miles on them.
I'll be selling them soon once my car is back on the road with the Wilwood conversion.

[Rolling_Thunder]

Honestly - I have SSBC 4-wheel disc on my charger with less than 2500 miles on them and i liked them - not great performance but decent...    compared to the old drums anyway...     Funny thing is my rears work well with the stock E-brake cables...     weird.