HELP!!!! Brakes, brakes, brakes

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M

MoparBrit

HillingdonDart
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Rio Rancho, NM
Okay, did the brake swap from a '73 Swinger lbp disc brake car onto my '71 Swinger sbp disc brake car. Bled the system and all is well, BUT the wife (no, not changing the wife) doesn't like the feel of manual disc brakes.

No problem I thought. Took the master and power booster off the '73 and swapped them onto the '71. Pretty straight forward. Just had to drill two holes that were pre-marked for the side and lower brace.

Here is the problem. Bolted the master arm to the brake pedal. Now I have almost a 1/4 inch of distance between the brake light switch and the pedal arm. I don't see how to adjust the switch to have it contact. I looked at the old pedal and can't see any difference between the '73 and '71. Both have a flat notch where the brake light switch contacts. With it as it is now the brake lights are on all the time.

Anyone know how to fix this?

Cheers
 
It's possible the pivot point of the pedal is in a different spot for more leverage. Which in turn might bring the pedal up farther. I'd measure the length of the other pedal and location of the holes, as in compare the two pedal arms.
 
I'll have to get the tape out. Was outside in 100 degree heat upside down under the dash trying to see how it all goes together. Looks to me like the brake switch is not adjustable. Just slides in the retainer by the look of it.

I thought the pedals might be different. I'll have to take another look as they appeared the same.

How does the pedal come out if I need to swap?

I hope it is not by swapping the whole brace thing that is up there as then I might have to rethink this deal. As it is the /6 factory air cleaner snorkle hits the master cylinder so I'll have to get a different filter for it.

Cheers
 
I have simply bent the bracket toward the pedal a time or two to get the brake switch to contact the pedal. 1/4 inch should not be a problem.
You may have accidently bent the bracket slightly while you were changing things under there, easy to do.
Bob
 
I’m a little embarrassed to say this but…I super glued 2 pennies together and super glued them to the brake peddle arm to make the brake light switch work correctly. And yes, that's my 2 cents.:toothy10:
 
Ha! Love the pennies thing!

I may try bending the tab first. I had pondered the thought of adding something to the pedal front to make it contact correctly. I'd rather not get into trying to swap the whole thing over from the '73.

A bit concerned that there is that much less travel on the pedal now (i.e. the pedal is now about 1/4 inch closer to the floor to start with thus the gap on the brake switch now). Hopefully everything will work out okay though. I've not bled the brakes again and tested everything as yet because I noticed the brake light switch issue so have the battery disconnected while I solve that.

Apart from that I need to get a vac plug for the other port that came off the vac fitting the power brakes are hooked too. I swapped the one off the intake of the 318 in the '73 onto the rear intake runner of the /6 in the '71. There was just a filler plug in the manifold on the '71 so simple enough swap. The hose on it was knackered and looked to be 3/8 so I used a bit of fuel line to replace it. Think that will be okay?

I also need to get a new filter box of some kind as the factory one now hits the master cylinder and will not go on. I've seen some old /6 air cleaners that are just round with only a breather pipe fitting off the side. I think they call them a pie tin type. The base is smaller than the top and the air comes in around the difference on the bottom between the base and the top. I'll loose the heated snorkle thing, but I'm thinking that might be the best way to go. Just need to scrounge one up. A chrome air cleaner might look a bit out of place on a 1 barrel /6 that is otherwise just stock so have not thought much about that alternative.

Thanks for all the help. This is certainly a great board for those getting back in to learn a thing or two again.

Cheers
 
don't use fuel line for vacuum. when it gets hot, the vacuum can collapse it. use either real brake booster hose or tranny cooler hose, they are double walled.
 
Hi, Thought that might be the case. I'll have to see if the local parts store has the correct stuff then this weekend. Pouring rain now so won't be working on the Dart today. Hope Saturday afternoon to get back to it.

Thanks for the tip.

Cheers
 
Okay here we go. The answer for me at least.

After tinkering about upside down trying to get the pedal out of the '73 Dart power disc brake car to swap into the '71 Dart that has the power booster and master out of the '73 now in it I decided to do some measuring.

I measured from the bulkhead to the back of the pedal arm straight out and then from the bulkhead to the front of the pedal arm where it would contact the brake switch. Did the same on the '71 and came up with 1/2" difference between the two cars. The pedal arm is the same measurement depth wise, just extends 1/2 more into the car. Real head scratcher that one. So, looked to me like just the pedal swap was not going to get me anywhere.

I then laid under the dash of the '71 I decided to take the bolt holding the bracket for the brake switch out and see if I can just drill a new hole in the brake switch bracket to come up with the difference in depth I'm getting. I loosen the bolt and the bracket starts to move.

Viola! The bracket adjusts. The bracket mount has slots in it to adjust the bracket where it needs to be. So, I adjusted the bracket up, made sure it turned the brake lights off and turned them on when the pedal was pushed and then tightened the bracket down.

DONE!

The silly and simple things eh?

Bled the brakes again, swapped the booster hose for some heavy duty power steering hose (heaviest I could find so hope it doesn't suck down, we'll see) and tested the brakes. Work well. Had the wife drive the car and she immediately commented on how much better the brakes were and how much better they stopped. As long as she is happy I'm happy.

Just thought I'd pass it on to anyone else that found themselves in the same boat.

Cheers
 
Glad you figured it out, I'll make a note about the adjustability, it'll probably come in handy someday. Sometimes it's the little things that cause the most frustration and head scratching.
Later,Bob
 
You have that right!

Just looking up at the bracket it does not look adjustable. Just looks like a bolt on angle bracket with a tab on the back to hold it in place while you tighten. At least on my '71, when you loosen the single bolt, you can adjust the whole bracket where you need it.

Cheers
 
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