I bought the ChevyDuty kit and while I remember spending money on stuff, I
don't remember thinking the kit was incomplete. I know it had the bearing
adapters and seals. When I was shopping kits I was also taking a '73
Chevelle apart, so that seemed the right place to start. Then I bought new
rotors and calipers instead of using the old parts off the car. I have the
rear from the '73 Chevelle under mine, and liked the idea of having all the
brake parts match.
I painted the brackets before installing them. I was installing on a '55
1st GMC. The instructions said that the provided hardware for attaching the
brackets were 7/16ths (I could be wrong on that number) but some trucks
would require larger bolts (1/2 if the other was 7/16ths). I ended up
buying a bunch of grade 8 bolts, washers and nylock nuts. I also used lots
of Locktite.
Heat the bearing adapters good and hot before trying to put them on.
I didn't like the way the caliper brackets fit, and ended up putting a
washer between the spindle and the bracket to get the caliper to center
right. I don't know if that was a GMC issue or a problem with the kit.
Since mine required the bigger bolts, and is a GMC, I wondered if the kits
were more appropriate for a Chevrolet.
The passenger side brake hose was pulled too tight using the original
bracket. I cut and bent a piece of strap, drilled some holes in it, and
used that to position the junction between the steel line and the brake hose
better. I used the '73 Chevelle brake hoses, and perhaps could have just
purchased longer lines, but didn't know how to ask for them and fixing the
bracket was easy.
I also converted to a dual master cylinder at the same time. I bought the
bracket from ChevyDuty and used a '73 Chevelle master cylinder and the
proportioning valve from the Chevelle. I also bought both a 2 pound and a
10 pound residual valve because the master cylinder is mounted lower than
the calipers.
If you poke around on my web site I wrote up the whole thing at the time,
and there might be some details there if you are interested.
Steve@OldSub.com
www.OldSub.com
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