Brake mods and gas line cleanup

50C8DAN

The transition from Tredle-vac to a modern power brake setup did not go as smoothly as I had hoped.  The hookups worked OK but when I pushed down and the peddle the results were less than what I expected.  After doing a lot of reading and finally calling a tech support person at Wildwood it turns out that the master cylinder bore is the key, complicated by the weird bellcrank setup for the Tredle-vac.  The bellcrank makes it difficult to calculate the pedal ratio.  The bellcrank setup is not unique to Hudson as other automakers that used the Tredle-vac units also had strange mechanisms.  I gave some serious thought to removing the bellcrank, but that would just create other problems,  What I was able to do was to adapt a 7/8" bore Wildwood non-power MC, changing from the 1" aluminum one I had installed.  This made a huge difference in pedal feel and stopping distance.  If I could I would have tried an even smaller bore but there are few options that are less than 7/8".  I also took the time to insert an auxillary vacuum pump and clean up the fuel pump to carb lines with stainless steel.

BigSky

looks really good nice Dan!

brumac

Dan, I did the same thing about 6 years ago and like you, I could not stop the car!  Gave up, and went back to the under floor master cylinder using the disc brake kit that Matt Faust was selling.  I found that the original Hudson power brakes with the original drum brakes stopped slightly better than the non power disc brake setup. however I like the no fade feature of the discs.  Are you using a 7 inch vacuum cylinder with the master cyl?  Did yo try the external vacuum pump before going to the present master cylinder?

50C8DAN

I am using a dual 7in booster.  I would have liked a bigger one, but the 7" just clears everything on the stock setup.  I did take just a nip on the firewall support but it was just about a 3/16" of an inch.  I initially did not use the external pump, but when I redid the master cylinder to 7/8" bore I went ahead and put it in as I had it plus the rest of the parts.  It is in tandem with the engine vacuum and also connects to the original vacuum canister that the Tredlevac used.  I still need to adjust the rear brakes and I think it will work even better.  I also like having a dual MC as a safety backup since the Tredlevac option did not use the Hudson triple safe brake arrangement.  

RichardD

Solution for my '53>>  https://goo.gl/photos/QEtE7t64Ebs53teC8