I've never been thrilled by the pedal effort during hard braking (even with power brakes) after I switched to sticky tires (255/50-17 Bridgestones). I wasn't too surprised as the stock C3 brakes were designed for tires of the day. I had no trouble locking up the stock size rubber or even the 255/60-15 BFG radial TA's. But once I got real tires on it, it was very difficult to lock the wheels up.

Even upgrading to Wilwoods all around didn't change this. I could lock them up but had to push so hard I was afraid I would rip the seat bolts out!

Mike (tracdogg2) came up with the solution: Use the master cylinder from a manual brake car. The manual MC is a straight bolt on. Same line fittings and same hole pattern. It bolts right onto a stock booster. The difference is the manual MC has a 1" bore and the power MC has 1 1/8". This means the manual MC will create higher line pressures, but with slightly more pedal travel.

Results are great. The pedal effort is very linear and easy to modulate. I can now lock the wheels up. Although pedal travel increased it is not something I found noticeable. The pedal is still a long ways from the floor when the wheels lock.

So with the wilwood calipers, stock booster and a manual MC I have finally found a combo that gives me what I consider really good brakes.

 

I put a manual master on my power system by mistake at one time. The brakes were ultra sensitive. I put the correct master on and I still have no trouble locking fronts even with competition tires. If anything, I want a little more braking effort required, IMO a little increased effort improves the pedal feel. I've thought about going to a mid-seventies truck master with 1-1/4" bore.

edit: This is with Hawk HP+ pads...better pads make all the difference in the world to improve braking power and feel.

 

Markus, did those wilwoods require fabrication to fit or did you have to mod the mounting bracket?

 

Wilwoods will not work without different brackets.

Corvette Engineering has kits. I think Keith is still a forum member and still sells them. http://www.corvettengineering.com/index.html

Heidt's also sells an adapter bracket that will allow the Wilwood to work on the rears, but I don't think they will work on the fronts that most people convert to. http://www.heidts.com/heip22-2.htm

I would go to one of Keith's kits at Corvette Engineering.

 

Brett: I used the corvettengineering kit that robrace10 mentioned. It's a bolt-on.

 

69autoxr: I'm using the Wilwood street pads and I agree with what you're saying. Wilwood has graphs showing friction vs temp for all their pads and the street pads do not have anywhere near the friction of the race pads. But mine is a street car and I don't want the sqeal and dusting of a competition pad.

 

Markus, I posted a topic about this a while back explaining the difference between the two. You got to come to class more often.

What did you do with all your old Autozone calipers? If you still have them, I would like to buy them or at least three of them.

 

Must have missed your old thread. Sorry.

I sold the calipers a while back to Adam. Nick might want to sell his?