Master of the Cylinders
3 masters. Seems like too many, but we're taking a page out of the circle track book. As in NASCAR, ie; Go Fast, Turn Left. More specifically in the brake setup though. I opted to run two seperate lightweight inexpensive single master cylinders for the front and rear brake circuits. They will be connected to the brake pedal inside the firewall with a balance bar which I will be able to use to set the front to rear brake bias with simple leverage. The plan is to push on the bar much closer to the front brake master, thus giving much more pressure to the front brakes. Why? you may ask. 3 really good reasons. 1. The front brakes do approximately 80% of the work stoppping the vehicle, mostly due to the fact that as you decellerate the vehicles weight tansfers to the front axle. 2. The font disc brakes of the car require more pressure than the rear drums do, due to the nature of drum brake shoes "energizing" when applied. Basically the friction on the shoe's lining pulls on the leading edge of the leading shoedown using the shoe as a lever to force it against the drum harder, nifty. 3. Regenerative braking. When it comes time to slow this beastie down and the Go pedal is released the motor begins to act as an alternator, turning the car's kinetic energy back into electricity, recharging the batteries some. This effect adds significant braking force to the rear wheels via the driveshaft, reducing the need for rear brake pressure. So why 3 masters? Not just because it looks so cool, but to operate the hydraulic clutch slave that came with the T-5 transmission. That bit of linkage that connects the clutch pedal to the master is super simple and I've already built it. You can't see it but it's there. Just a salvaged engine brace made of 1/2" dia steel with an eye on the end with a 3/8" hole. The hole fit the nubbin on the clutch pedal and I drilled and tapped the rod to 5/16" fine thread to match the master's supplied push rod. Adjusted length and tightened the jam nut,.Ta. Da. On a related note we also got the body back on the frame before all the master fun began and the old man spent the better part of a day getting her bolted down with fancy rubber isolators sandwiching the sheet metal for a quiet smooth ride. Also unseen in this picture is the mass amount of work Pa did getting a solid coat of semi gloss black POR-15 (superbadass rust paint) on the underside of the floor. Trust me it's gorgeous. A wise man once said "Paint it black, It disappears". More fun to come, including sealing and painting the top side of the floor and finally charging and capacity testing our fancy, home built, recycled, labour intensive battery pack.
Talk soon
Chris
#mastercylinderpor15semiglosshotrodblackregenerativebrakingdual
