1955 Ranch Wagon Cruiser

[DJ3100]

Easy fix on the clutch pedal. Weld an upright from the bend just above the pedal to the bottom of the bracket that the pushrod mounts to. If it still tries to bend add one from the top of that upward and over to the pedal arm. That will make one large triangle. You might also have to add rib or t section to the arm if it still twists the arm

The twist is between the pivot and the rod attachment. Boxing that part of the arm would make it work. My current plan is to make a new clutch pedal assembly that mounts to the clutch master bolts, similar to the Wilwood pedal assemblies. We'll see how that goes this morning.

My apologies, DJ. I haven't followed close enough to know you're working with a different design, ignorant as I am...

.

No apologies necessary. It's been a while - maybe 2 years - since I showed or talked about the engine - it's hard to remember all the details of all the projects. Probably lots of other folks were wondering the same thing.

 

[DJ3100]

Here's the new clutch pedal assembly. I am pretty sure I posted this before, but I can't find it on this thread, so maybe it got on your thread or maybe I forgot to hit submit.

Anyhow, I used the Wilwood pedal assembly dimensions and built a bracket and arm. The arm started as 3/8 x 1 1/2. I forged it out to get the tapers and spend a good while creating the bends to get it to fit the floor.

This pedal assembly uses an 8 to 1 ratio which is a little easier to push than the previous 6 to 1, but I'm not sure I'm getting full travel. After several tries and 4 different methods I think I have all the air bled. I'm getting good movement on the release bearing but when I turn the engine the wheels still move.

 

[DJ3100]

Working through the pre-start checklist, I'm short a fuel filter. It and the necessary AN fittings will be here tomorrow.

I still am not satisfied with the brakes. It takes a few pumps to get pedal. I have been rolling around underneath looking for any weeping fittings or any other sign of a problem. I'll try vacuum bleeding through the master today and see if I get and air bubbles.

Hydraulic clutches are always to problem for me to get bled and this one has been no exception, but I think It's there.

In the meantime I still have a few projects left to work on, the big one is the headlight buckets.

 

[Torchie]

[P [P [P [P
Torchie

 

[DJ3100]

Went for the first fire up today.

Hot wired the fuel pump to get manifold pressure. After running the fuel pump for about a minute, I discovered one of the fittings was not tight and I had pumped a significant amount of fuel out on the ground. So I know the fuel pump works and that the regulator is plumbed correctly. Later, with a second pair of eyes, we ran the fuel pump for a couple minutes and never saw any pressure on the gauge at the pressure port. (As I think about that now I suspect the gauge or perhaps the connection is not depressing the Schrader valve.)

With a spark detector in place on one of the plug wires we cranked the engine with no sign of spark.

So no fuel, no spark; no run. By that time it was the middle of the afternoon and to hot to think of the next step. To be continued .....

 

[Torchie]

Hang in there. You will get it going.
I finally got mine to do a quick fire last night.
Torchie

 

[DJ3100]

Hang in there. You will get it going.
I finally got mine to do a quick fire last night.
Torchie

Good that you got yours to show some life.

At this point mine is a puzzle that I'm OK with figuring out. I wasn't really expecting it to start and run without some issues.

 

[DJ3100]

The brakes have me stumped, maybe someone will have some advise.

The pedal goes to the floor, but will pump up with a few cycles. I have vacuum and pressure bled all the calipers and am not getting any air bubbles. I vacuum bled the master a couple times getting nothing but fluid. The result doesn't change.

Since the engine hasn't run, the vacuum booster isn't providing any boost, but shouldn't there still be some pedal?

 

[endicott_jb]

Are you running disc brakes or drums? If you're running drums and it does that, look at adjusting the shoes out a little bit more to where they are barely rubbing. If you're running disc in the front and drums in the rear but don't have a prop valve, I'd suggest looking into installing one. Also, if your pedals are below the axles, run residual relief valves. If you don't have those they'll cause fluid to flow from the wheels back to the master cylinder and you'll have the spongey pedal effect. I've noticed that with some fords that use vacuum boosters, they have a sorta "weak" feeling pedal. Other factors can be linkage length, pedal free travel, and rubber lines but only if the lines are older.

 

[Bamamav]

Master may be bypassing a bit initially. Even without the booster you should have a firm pedal. If bled free of air, no leaks, the master would just about have to be bypassing on first pump or two, then seating and working properly. I'd try bench bleeding the master again a time or two, if no better you might need to try another master.

 

[soltz]

For what it's worth I had the same problem with the sprint. I bled every thing a number of times and like you still had no rear brakes, the front disc seems ok. As endicott mentioned it was the adjustment. This model did not have adjuster slots to adjust from the back side, so i made some and leaving just a slight drag all worked well.
Keep in mind this is on a gmc not a ford, but brakes are brakes [S
Good luck and i'm sure you'll get it, you've gotten ever thing else done [cl

 

[DJ3100]

Are you running disc brakes or drums? If you're running drums and it does that, look at adjusting the shoes out a little bit more to where they are barely rubbing. If you're running disc in the front and drums in the rear but don't have a prop valve, I'd suggest looking into installing one. Also, if your pedals are below the axles, run residual relief valves. If you don't have those they'll cause fluid to flow from the wheels back to the master cylinder and you'll have the spongey pedal effect. I've noticed that with some fords that use vacuum boosters, they have a sorta "weak" feeling pedal. Other factors can be linkage length, pedal free travel, and rubber lines but only if the lines are older.

I have 4 wheel discs and firewall master with a prop valve. All the brake parts are GM including the "Corvette" master. But, thanks for the input.

Master may be bypassing a bit initially. Even without the booster you should have a firm pedal. If bled free of air, no leaks, the master would just about have to be bypassing on first pump or two, then seating and working properly. I'd try bench bleeding the master again a time or two, if no better you might need to try another master.

I was not sure about the firm pedal, confirmation helps. It has occurred to me that the master my have gone belly up from sitting so long without fluid. I'll try bleeding a few more times before I give up.

For what it's worth I had the same problem with the sprint. I bled every thing a number of times and like you still had no rear brakes, the front disc seems ok. As endicott mentioned it was the adjustment. This model did not have adjuster slots to adjust from the back side, so i made some and leaving just a slight drag all worked well.
Keep in mind this is on a gmc not a ford, but brakes are brakes [S
Good luck and i'm sure you'll get it, you've gotten ever thing else done [cl

The discs all seem to be clamping down on the rotors after the master has pumped up. Thanks for the vote of confidence.

Helped my son-in-law wire his garage today so I never even got to look at the Ranch Wagon. Nice to have a day off.

 

[Bamamav]

My brakes actually feel better without the booster. I thought about just taking the booster off of mine, with it hooked up, my brake pedal is too easy to mash. Hard sometimes to get a feel of how much brake you are applying. I bled mine without the booster working, pedal felt good and firm, but not hard. When I cranked it and the booster started working, I thought I'd lost my brakes.

 

[DJ3100]

The no fuel pressure problem turned out to be the gauge (free rental). I had enough pressure for it to spray onto the engine and firewall. A few years ago I managed to catch my El Camino on fire when I hit the ignition after I had spilled some fuel on the engine. Didn't want to do that to the Ford, so I didn't try to chase down the no spark condition.

I guess I need to "bench" bleed the master. I can do it using the 2 unused ports on the passenger side of the master and won't need to remove the master or the brake lines. It seems the manufacturers are serious enough about bench bleeding the master that they include a bench bleeding kit.

 

[DJ3100]

It runs

I had the crank and cam sensors swapped. In the process of changing them I had a few other related problems, but once I got them ironed out it started.

Have oil pressure on the gauge, charging voltage on the gauge, tach works. Not sure about temperature gauge - didn't run it that long. Runs smooth, no smoke, no lifter noise and haven't found any leaks.

But, probably a vacuum leak - the brake booster does not respond. The idle is slow to return after revving a little. Working on that in a few.

Bench bled the master on the car - still no pedal. Seems like the clutch is not disengaging - with no brakes and on jack stands it's hard to tell.

 

[I-R-POPS]

Glad you got the motorvator running, that always juices me when I can hear them run. I guess that's why I always seem to start the motor before really getting into the tin works.

I had the exact same symptoms on my Dodge dually build when doing the brake system. I used a brake booster/master cylinder combo from Speedway that was defective. You could hear a vacuum leak internally. They sent me another one and fixed my woes.

 

[DJ3100]

Glad you got the motorvator running, that always juices me when I can hear them run. I guess that's why I always seem to start the motor before really getting into the tin works.

I had the exact same symptoms on my Dodge dually build when doing the brake system. I used a brake booster/master cylinder combo from Speedway that was defective. You could hear a vacuum leak internally. They sent me another one and fixed my woes.

Yeah, getting it started is huge.

My booster and master combo came from Speedway - about 18 months ago. I had a flakey hook-up to the intake. Got that changed and the booster feels like it is working. It dropped back to idle a little quicker, as well (don't know if a vacuum leak is responsible for that or not).

The master is a different story. I have not been able to get any air bubbles out on the last few bleeding attempts, but I'm going to try one more time before buying a new master.

 

[DJ3100]

Brakes

It runs! But I can't drive it until it has brakes. So, I decided to start from scratch.

I removed the master cylinder and bench bled it. Then plugged all the ports to check for internal leaks. It checked out OK, so the master is good. I also checked the push rod from the booster and it checked out good.

With the master reinstalled I checked all the fittings for leaks and didn't find any.

Vacuum bled the caliper nearest the master, to get any air I had gotten in when the master was R and R'd. Then worked around the other calipers and then did all 4 again. I'm not convinced any of the bleed screws were air free. I also vacuum bled the master from the feed holes at the bottom of the reservoir.

After all that, still almost no petal, although it will pump up with 3 or 4 strokes. So I still have air in the system.

I also built a pressure bleeder and tried reverse bleeding a caliper. But for that process I need a spotter because I ended up pumping more fluid into the reservoir than it could hold - that was a mess.

My plan for tomorrow is to make a lid for the master that will allow me to vacuum bleed the master and the prop valve.

 

[zzrodder]

This may be a dumb suggestion but I had this issue on my 34 Caddy using a Speedway booster/master/pedal assy. - nothing worked including pressure bleeding - I found that it was missing a part between the master and the booster - it did move just a little, enough to pump up after several pumps. Drove me nuts trying to figure it out - could you have a similar problem with the excessive clearance on the pushrod between the master and booster?

 

[zpi28]

This may be a dumb suggestion but I had this issue on my 34 Caddy using a Speedway booster/master/pedal assy. - nothing worked including pressure bleeding - I found that it was missing a part between the master and the booster - it did move just a little, enough to pump up after several pumps. Drove me nuts trying to figure it out - could you have a similar problem with the excessive clearance on the pushrod between the master and booster?

Now thats worth checking. I have alot of stroke not used in my setup but I do have good brakes. I have one of the ebay combos for a tri 5 chevy. I never separated the master/booster to check it. Thanks.. Hope this helps with the wagon.