Thread: Elementary Series III brake questions

Evening All

I'm in the process of gradually (very gradually actually) doing up a ca. 1976 Series III diesel ute as my son's first car. The good thing about the vehicle is that it has no rust in the chassis or firewall, but it does need some work, starting with the brakes. I'm basically replacing the brakes from the Master cylinder to the brake shoes and have four questions regarding the brakes:

1 Is it possible to retro-fit the split system brakes to a non-split system original? As far as I can see the answer must be yes;

2. Is it possible to have split system which has not got power assistance? As far as I can see from my manual this was never an option;

3 Would it be possible to use the split system/power assisted system MC and associated plumbing off a 1984 County in place of the existing system? I would have thought so, but don't know enough about the geometry of the firewalls - has anyone done this? If so, and I'm sure I've seen this discussed, where do I get a vacuum from?

4 I'm planning on replacing all the pre-existing steel brake lines, or at least all which look anything other than pretty pristine. Are there special tools which help with bending the steel brake line, or do you just do this by hand?

I'm pretty keen to get the brakes as good as possible and I like the idea of a split/ power assisted system for this car as it will be my son's first car, so I'm particularly interested in advice about points 3 and 4. He will be hard pressed to go hooning in a Series III diesel and I've assured him that such a vehicle will be a 'chick magnet'!

Cheers


Michael

yes on all counts

fitting county MC is a bit of a tetris and may need some modding of the foot well but its not impossible. I think you can also mount the MC of the county to the booster of a series.

the tool to bend the brake line is your hands for the long gentle bends and a very very soft rubber mallet and a sheet of rubber mat to get it to follow the contours of the chassis. An appropriate sized pipe bender will take care of the tighter radius stuff but you can, in a pinch, roll it carefully around some 50mm tubing.

just remember put the union fitting on BEFORE you put the flaring tool on and ensure you do the correct double flares