1966 g van has a new home

Thanks WM, I have all the disc's installed but have been trying to resolve the issue of "Low Pedal" since the install? Still trying to resolve that issue???
B.W.

BW, what type of calipers are you running on your van???
What lines are you running front and rear? 3/16 front 1/4 rear?

I have Nova fronts


and 85 Caddy rear's.


I'll have to re-check that size, but that does sound right?

BW...maybe this might help.
Rear caliper problem
If you are using Cadillac ElDorado rear calipers there are some important things you should know. One of the biggest advantages of a disc brake system is the fool proof self adjuster. Not so with this rear GM system. The rear calipers adjust off the parking brake. The parking brake is incorporated into the caliper. You must set the parking brake every time you park the car.The rear caliper pitons utilize a one way clutch inside the caliper piston. When the parking brake is applied the clutch senses when there is .030" or more clearence between the friction material and the rotor on the inboard side. When there is more than .030" the clutch turns inside the piston adjusting it out keeping the rear brakes adjusted. If you do not set your parking brake every time you will start to lose brake pedal (low and spongy) and the adjuster mechanism will not work any longer. Also: never use rebuilt calipers on the rear because the rebuilders use the old pistons and the pistons were the reason the caliper failed in the first place. This is from master power brakes web site.

BW..is that a front sway bar????/ i'm envious...

WM...I obtained my rear disc's from CCP and they were new. I know I may have a problem, as my E-brake has been out of the Van since the 70's! Never used it then, so I removed everything!!! I now will have to re-install that, in order for everything to work with the rear disc's!!! Donivan supplied me with a new e-brake handle a year or so ago, and I have to get it back in! My problem is my new job! No time off to do anything anymore!!!! It's nice to $$$$$...but time is off is needed as well! Oh well.
B.W.
and yes...that is a "Sway Bar"! I placed it on the Van in 88 and would never be without one, now that I know how well it handles with it!!! Took a bit of engineering to get it to work with the front disc's, but eventually I figured a way to make it work.

Got to spend the day tinkering with the Surfwagon...finished bending and flaring the rear brake line and installed the remote fill reservoir under drivers seat. Pulled the front axle out sanded cleaned primed painted..The front spindles and e-brake cables will be here Tuesday...can't wait to get her back on the road.

whopman,That is looking good and going to be real sano ! Bill

Received front spindles with disc set ups today. Will start the install process Thursday. Looks like i will have to move the shocks to the front side of the axle...not sure as of yet but will deal with it when to that point. I also received the e-brake cables back from inline tube...they would not shorten the originals I sent them due to liability..They made a set of rears 2 inches shorter than the orig. and made a new front line as well.

Coming around great Whopman.It'll be great to see your set up all together as a unit. Looks like your going about it the right way.

Got to spend so time reinstalling the front axle and tie rod. The spindles fit perfectly. A really nice set up. The calipers did bump into the shocks..Had to get creative..didn't want to move them to the front (too much of an angle) I fabricated some new lower shock mounts which saddle the front axle using the existing shock hole. Used 2" square tubing sliced stretched welded drilled installed. Will get around to bleeding the system this weekend after hooking up e-brakes.

nice work!!! can't wait to see it finished...

Looks good whopman! Glad to see you taking that van to the next level. Awesome work!

Looks real nice. Are you planning on reinstalling steering stops? Looks like your caliper mount covered up it's mounting hole.
What calipers & rotors,bearings are being used here? Thanks & keep us posted. Brad

Dan and Livewire thanks for the compliments. Working hard to get it back on the road. The company that made the brackets forget to send the stops back with the spindles...got them in the mail today. willl install them on the front side of the spindles. Parts used are as follows:
Rotors 67-72 Chevelle
Calipers 68-72 Chevelle
Bearings outer A2 inner A6
Pads D-52 or D-052

Was able to get a few hours of work in on the brake system.
Installed the new e-brake cables (heavier diameter) with the new pulleys. All went well. Next time lokar cables! Got the master cylinder bled and going to gravity bleed the system on Tuesday.

whopman wrote:Dan and Livewire thanks for the compliments. Working hard to get it back on the road. The company that made the brackets forget to send the stops back with the spindles...got them in the mail today. willl install them on the front side of the spindles. Parts used are as follows:
Rotors 67-72 Chevelle
Calipers 68-72 Chevelle
Bearings outer A2 inner A6
Pads D-52 or D-052

Same parts as the early BZ/Wild Bill disc swap used. Cool.

spent some time tuesday morning bleeding the system. Worked around all four wheels three times to ensure lines were free of bubbles. Got that done then the pedal was firm at first then went down to far for my liking. the rear cadillac calipers were the culprit..after spending some internet time found the proper way to set the internal e-brake..spent some quality time setting the calipers. once done with that went another round bleeding the system again. Works like a charm. No rear wheel lockup, solid firm pedal, quick stopping with no pull or drag. The e-brake cable sets solid...just have to remember to use it daily or the rear calipers will get out of sync and the pedal will get spongy again. Money and time well spent. I will go for another round of bleeding in a few days to ensure all air is out...next project????????

A few pictures of all four corners and brake line runs.

right rear

left rear


right front

left front

master and lines to right front and rear main line

great job................................

%#@*%#$@!
drove the van to work yesterday after I did several laps around the neighborhood to verify all was good with no leaks...awesome to stop like that!
DRIVING HOME NOT SO GOOD !!!! Got about a mile from the house and the rear brakes slowly started to drag to the point of bogging down the motor!!
Pulled off on a side road as soon as I could and maybe went a block or so before I came to a complete stop.The rears were locked down tight.
Thought maybe the e-brake cable and settings were to tight crawled under unhooked e-brake..brakes still locked up...felt the rear calipers they were really hot ..not to the point you couldn't touch but still hotter than they should have been...Didn't want to risk anything called AAA and had a flat bed sent out ....less than a half mile from the house and a 2 hours wait...Did get her home safe...started going over the whole installation process in my head trying to zero in on what could have caused this...Did find an important step I missed....the combination valve was set up for disc/drum..in order to set it for disc/disc you have to pull out the plunger in the front and install a plug which came with the valve..Called master power brakes this morning and told them what had happened and was told this was not the cause of the rear lock up.
The brake push rod was the culprit....When I set the pedal up ,I set the plunger with zero gap into the master cylinder and at its fullest retracted position in the van....With manual brakes you must leave at least a 1/16=1/8 gap between the rod and plunger in the master...(with power brakes a .0020 gap is all that is needed the power cylinder pulls the pedal out of the way and relieves pressure to the plunger) THIS IS NOT THE CASE WITH MANUAL BRAKES the plunger is at the mercy of the return spring ....the constant tapping of the plunger by the push rod kept activating the rear cylinders forcing the calipers to close and drag and then heat up forcing the caliper even tighter...
Lesson learned...I will verify my current set up Saturday or Sunday morning

Just a small bump in the road ,the job you did is awesome ! So it stopped good. Bill

I learned that to when I had to reset the eccentric on the pedal, but I caught it while doing the bleeding. I'm not running that large of a gap tho at the rod end, maybe .010 at the most but My current MC is the shallow plunger type. You got it tho, the pedal has to come all the way up to relieve the pressure on the MC. Debugging these systems is a PITA sometimes but the more we learn and pass on the easier it will be for the next guy. I know on the next brake conversion Im going with that remote resevoir like you did,,

Reset the plunger rod this morning and removed the valve that I should have done before(duh!) bled the system again and double checked the rod end clearance. took it for a 10 mile trip around the neighborhood...ALL GOOD What a nice feeling to know it will stop when needed!!!!
Digz...if you go with the remote master on your next build I had to adjust where I mounted the remote reservoir....I had it bolted directly to the doghouse...it seemed to absorb a lot of heat so I used some nylon spacer to move it out so it could get some air circulating around it. It has kept it quite a bit cooler.

OK ,couldn't take the sloppy shifter anymore...took the front shifter pins out to find out there was nothing left of the original bushings except the metal shells. you can see the remains in the pictures
you can find the originals online at some of the classic truck websites but they are the same rubber stuff as the originals and figured they would last a month or so....I discovered Lowes hardware aisle some years ago..they have grade 8 bolts, stainless bolts, brass bushings, pins, etc...about 32 feet of specialty drawers filled with ideas!!!!
The following pictures show the items I used to repair the front shifter rod bushings.
1 pack of 1/2"(outside dia. same size a shifter hole) x .328 (inside dia. hole . the size of the shifter pin) x 1"( length)
2 rubber grommets with 1/2" inside dia. hole.
2 pin clips or cotter pins.
Started out cutting the nylon bushing down in length to fit into the rod end...this worked out well but left a little slop between the to parts once the pin was installed. I took the 1/2 grommet and split it in half putting one half on each end of the bushing to fill the gap and act as a centering part. reinstalled and no slop..Had less the 5 bucks in parts...