Posted by RonNL  6/02/2014 4:02 AM | #1 |
A year ago a complete SSBC A120-20 Disk brake kit was installed on my 1965 Mustang. The car had already disk brakes, Kelsey Hayes, but it was time to renew it. After it was installed I didn’t notice any difference at (better) stopping the car when pushing the brake pedal. Still there was needed quite some pedal force to stop the car. I heard from other SSBC users they experienced the same braking ‘issue’. My mechanic came with the idea to install a dual diaphragm rembooster. As far as I know this kind of rembooster is only installed in Mustangs from 1967 and newer.
When it arrived it looked quite bigger than the current booster. The space between the firewall and the shocktower is not very wide. So it was quite exciting if it would fit.
After removing the old booster it was obviously that the brackets also needded to be removed and that the booster should be installed directly to the firewall. Also the steering column, brake pedal and header were removed for better access.
The brake pedal got also new bushings.
The firewall needed to be adjusted so that the booster would fit.
Now the gauges were accessible, the 1895 bulbs were renewed and a ground wire was installed for brighter lights of the gauges. I’ve read somewhere that most of the groundwires for the instrument clusters disappeared and that could result in less lighting.
My valve covers, especially at the oilcap side, were always greasy. Time to renew the valve cover gaskets. But at removing the covers, there was something strange at the covers. The baffle at the inside was hit by hammerstrikes and at the cover with the oilcap the baffle was completely removed. At a closer look at the rockers, they seemed to be higher roller rockers. These Cobra covers were just too small for these rockers. So we needed also new taller valve covers.
The old AC Delco sparks were replaced with new NGK sparks. Also a new Taylor spark plug wire set and a wire loom for the looks.
To finish, the Cobra aircleaner was painted all black.
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It was quite a job to replace the single with the dual diaphragm brakebooster. But I can feel the difference in braking. Less force is now being used to push the pedal and the car stops easier.
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Posted by R5CYA 6/04/2014 12:37 AM | #2 |
nice!
you don't do anything under 110%, do you? 
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Posted by RonNL 6/04/2014 7:44 AM | #3 |
That almost 50 years old lady deserves the best. 
Ron
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Posted by HenryJ 8/15/2014 7:50 AM | #4 |
Looks great! But no update on how the brakes worked out? That's a shame you had to ditch the cobra valve covers,, to me they look the best on a classic mustang.
edit: I see your text about the brakes on your last photo. Congratulations on the improvements.
Last edited by HenryJ (8/15/2014 7:51 AM)
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Posted by Fedral144 12/12/2014 1:31 AM | #5 |
HenryJ wrote:
Looks great! But no update on how the brakes worked out? That's a shame you had to ditch the cobra valve covers,, to me they look the best on a classic mustang.
edit: I see your text about the brakes on your last photo. Congratulations on the improvements.
Please explain...???
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Posted by RonNL 3/18/2015 6:22 AM | #6 |
Update.
1-The groundwire at the gauges.
After I put a ground wire to the gauges panel, I noticed the gauges had a better light and were better visible at the dark. Better visibility will be probably using LED in the gauges. Maybe at a later moment.
2-The mastercylinder.
The mastercylinder I had was not looking nice compared to the rest of the engine compartment. It looked a little rusty and shabby.
So I was looking for a replacement for the mc.
When I saw the SSBC billet mc I was convinced that was the right one.
At the SSBC website it was mentioned that it was “For vehicles with O.E. non-power disc brakes only.” And I was using power brakes. So I informed at SSBC if it was possible to install this mc at my power brake SSBC A120 configuration. Yes, It was possible but I had to use an adapter A21200. No idea how the adapter looked like. I couldn’t find anything about it. So the order was placed for the A0470-2 and the adapter. It took almost three months to get the mc shipped. This was not a stock part. The special adapter took another month extra. This was a difficult part to order. Summit couldn’t deliver the part at all and at SSBC it had to be special produced.
As it arrived it looked really big and I was afraid it wouldn’t fit the space I had with my export brace. But fortunately it fitted.
The ‘special’ adapter was something that probably could be made by any mechanic. Not really special.
After it was installed it looked great.
The pedal force for braking was the same as with the old master cilinder. The pedal travel was a little bit more, but not noticeable.
Ron
The Netherlands
Last edited by RonNL (3/18/2015 6:46 AM)
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Posted by cjl4 11/02/2015 11:09 PM | #7 |
Thanks for the posting, just starting to research power upgrade and will keep this one in mind, was the fire wall modification just enlarging the holes? Did you go with the new master cylinder just for the look or another reason? I also prefer the look of the original valve covers.
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Posted by RonNL 11/03/2015 4:27 AM | #8 |
The firewall had to be knocked out with a hammer, in the shape of the booster. No modifications to the holes. The old brake booster was mountes on brackets, but the dual diaphragm booster was quite thicker, and mounted on the brackets it will not fit between the firewall and the shocktower. So mounted directly to the firewall. But it also needed some 'shims' for clearance, so that the booster didn't hit the firewall when the nuts are tightened.
The master cylinder was already upgraded from single to a dual bowl mastercylinder, what came with the SSBC disk brake kit. But that had some leak problems and became rusty, As I searched on internet I found out that a leaking mastercylinder occurs quite often. I read about someone was using some 3m weather strip adhesive to seal it, and that worked for me also. For the time being. But good things I read about the billet aluminium mastercylinder. No leaks and it also looks great.
Last edited by RonNL (11/04/2015 4:07 AM)
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Posted by 6568 11/16/2017 7:01 PM | #9 |
Can you tell me more about how you did the electric steering in the car
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Posted by RonNL 11/20/2017 12:58 PM | #10 |
My electric powersteering has been installed by a company what is their main business. I think it’s also possible to do it by yourself. I had already hydraulic powersteering, but alway leaking little drops. At the Dutch Mustang forum I read about members who had this option installed. So I called this company and I could bring the car in the morning and take it back home in the late afternoon. They removed the one piece driveshaft and installed a new one with half way the servo motor. And also a complete new Flaming River steering box. A small computer box (little bigger than a box of matches) is placed under the dashboard. The old powersteering parts were removed.
The new powersteering was a little different to the old one. The old hydraulic was constantly working and the new eps was working only at the moment there is a movement of the steering wheel. It assists with the servo motor at turning the steering wheel. It feels like having more contact with the road. The old hydraulic was very, very light, maybe too light.
One of the first days I was using the eps I felt that the first 10 minutes driving the steering was quite heavy, but after some driving the steering became more lite. This happened quite a lot. An e-mail to the company who installed the eps didn’t help. So I replaced my battery and the problem was gone. It never returned any more. So an old, weak battery will affect the usage. Maybe the starter will take a lot of power from the battery, and that will affect the power needed for the epas. I have a 65amps alternator. The servo will use between 5 to 20 amps.
I saw CJPony sells also eps kits, and has an installation video.
After a few months I also got a rack & pinion steering, manual because I had already a power steering. That r&p was a great improvement.
http://fyi.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=314
Last edited by RonNL (11/20/2017 1:13 PM)
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Posted by Alessandro 11/25/2017 11:18 AM | #11 |
Hi Ron from netherlands , nice job !
please explain me something , you had eps and later you add rack and pinion ? or you leaved eps and now you have only rp ?
How is the feeling to drive rp ?
I have seen a lot of stuff under the engine and i am wondering that you still have a 65 amps , i think is working always at max ever.
Ciao
alex italy
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Posted by RonNL 11/26/2017 12:42 PM | #12 |
Hi Alex,
I first changed from hydraulic-ps to eps.
Then I added to my eps the manual rack & pinion steering. (From Flaming River) The eps works great with the manual rack & pinion. Driving with the r&p is very sharp, like steering a modern car.
With my old steering system I was constantly correcting with steering to stay between the white lines on the highway, or on narrow country roads. However after the steering box was replaced with a new one, it was not sharp enough. The r&p was such a big improvement and driving was more relaxed now. Just keeping the steering wheel in place and no more left, right correcting. It was one of my best investments.
The eps draws between the 5 and 20 amps max.
I do have an airco (maybe using a few times in a year), a simple car radio what isn’t using much amps. When I drive at daylight I always have my front white parking lights and the taillights on, all led. Also the gauges are all leds. All lights on draws about max 2 amps. My headlights are H4 halogen, but using these only when driving in the evening when it’s dark, what is not often.
The installation of the r&p:
http://fyi.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=314
The bumpsteer issue:
http://fyi.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=2049
The LED conversion:
http://fyi.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=7230
On Youtube are several movies about eps.
https://youtu.be/N1fExx26nGY
