In the middle of Power Brake swap. Need help fast!!

[68Coupe289]

A buddy and I are putting power disks off a Mustang onto my manual drum brake car. I have all the parts, but we have a few concerns we've found so far.

1. Power Booster. The original manual booster was secured by 2 threaded bolts. The Power booster appears to need 5 holes in the firewall, and all need to be unthreaded.

Am I right to assume that we have to drill these holes out? It looks like I have 4 out of the 5 holes I need, but they are all threaded.

2. Brake pedal. I bought a new power brake pedal. My friend Gary says it appears that the clutch and manual brake pedal share a pivot shaft. But the power brake pedal just came with a short bolt. Where does it fasten to, and what about the clutch?

3. Lower control arms. The ball joints refuse to seperate from the spindles. I'm about to just by new lower arms. Is there a tricm to get them off without destroying the ball joints? And if not, do you have to have new ball joints pressed in?

Thanks for any help. And let us know if there are any other major stumbling blocks any of you encountered when doing this swap.

 

[golf4283]

I can help with the spindle problem. Get yourself a nice big hammer and start whacking the hell out of the spindle where it is connected. Eventually it will just pop out of there(the spindle from ball joint). Then you just lower it and everything stays intact. About the brakes though I did not think anything was different but I havent done the swap. I would say make sure that you have the right power booster etc. I believe the power boosters use 4 threaded bolts and it will go right in. Ford didnt make 2 different firewalls for the same car so It should just go right in.

 

[PONY XPRESS]

If you don't have a ball joint fork try the hammer trick, but I would use 2 hammers. One to hit the spindle, the 2nd acts as an impact support opposite of where your hitting.

 

[pabear89]

The Booster is held on by 4 studs thru the firewall and a bolt from the engine side.

Your petal set up must be for auto or stick there is a different bracket for each.

Pickle fork on the ball joint and a hammer blow on the spindle will pop them right off.

I just removed the entire system from a 68 XR7 along with the Pwr steering.

It's posted in the Trader section.


PB

 

[67coupe351w]

Pull your pedal suport out and grind the threaded bungs off of it. If I remember correctly you do have to drill 1 hole, the lower most hole.

You can use the same old brake pedal also. Just pull the rod out of the booster that hooks to your brake pedal (it will come out) and lengthen it so that your pedal is possitioned in the right spot. I did this and it seems to work ok.

 

[mr-fixit]

The pedal support from the factory, is different for the power brake cars. As previously stated to convert your pedal support from maual brakes to power, the bungs must be ground off, or drilled out. I have done this on the car, but pulling the support out would make the job easier. The power brake pedal is longer, and mounts higher up in the support,(then the manual brake pedal) with just a bolt, like you described. Clutch pedal stays where it is.