Well. It's been an interesting two weeks.
With the front end all buttoned up - finally - I went to the tire shop and handed them some rough specs. I didn't know what I'd get in terms of a caster/camber balance between both the F/M/J spindles AND the
one-off, -1/8" shorter UCA's from Firm Feel, but from what I've read about Mopar front suspension (and from my own experience with an A-body), getting -0.5 degrees camber and 6 degrees caster is cause for celebration!
That celebration was short lived though. See, I'd never driven the car until I rolled out of the tire shop...and that's when I discovered this:
Chalk up my first downright bonehead screwup in ages - after all the effort spent on the rotors too. Long story short, I wound up installing one of the rear brake pads reversed. It's VERY easy to do on the F/M/J design if you're not paying attention.
Ordered another rotor and yet more pads in the meantime and put the damaged Bendix to the side to be machined at the local parts store...again.
And so I put everything back together again, went for a drive, and no more than a mile out, it started pulling harder and harder to the right. Got out and found the rotor and caliper smoking like a steam engine. Caliper piston was seizing. No idea if it was from the whole rotor thing (probably) or whether I did a crap job of rebuilding the piston.
Ok...so one more week lost and a re-manufactured Cardone (for the amount of crap that I've dealt with with Cardone parts, I'm surprised I dared try them again for anything) caliper was installed today, along with the freshly re-machined Bendix rotor.
AND IT WORKS NOW!
For once, after about two months (or so it seems) of jamming, banging, and fighting front end parts on this thing, it finally stops with a pair of disc brakes on it, and doesn't require a constant effort to center the wheels (admittedly, there's a tiny pull to the right still, but I should just have the shop tinker a bit more with it). It even feels pretty nice over the bumps with the Koni shocks (pity the rears won't fit - looks like it's Bilsteins for that end of the car; perhaps all four if a good deal shows up).
However...
I'm not convinced the 15/16" master cylinder is the right thing for the 11" disc + 11" drum combination; at least the one I've installed. It's a Raybestos MC36406 - a disc/drum unit for a '73-75 A-body. Though it may be providing the ideal PSI to the front calipers, the feel at the pedal is
really spongy and dead. What's more, you can use almost all the travel in the pedal before the car feels as if it's even close to panic stopping - and even if you plant it, it doesn't seem overly concerned about the whole matter; doesn't feel as if it's possible to lock them up.
I know I bled the system and can feel that neither of the calipers (nor rear shoes) are dragging at this point, but I don't think this master is the right one for the job. Either that, or the softie pedal is what people like because it's not much work and feels like what you'd imagine a normal vacuum boosted system would feel like with - surprise - no booster. But it reminds me of braking done in the fashion of a sloppy steering box (which reminds me...that's another thing that needs to be tipped in the rubbish bin).
Thing is, I'm used to the minty 9" four-wheel-drum system on my Valiant. And as much derision as that setup usually gets, I paired it with a drum/drum version of a similar Raybestos master (the MC36338), and it feels great. You push the pedal just a bit and you instantly feel a stiff - but manageable - feedback against your foot that you can modulate perfectly. Then again, it might just be the self-energizing nature of the drum brake.
Might have to call Cass on this one...
-Kurt
