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Cracked lug nuts, jacked up rear, removed wheels, put them under
the frame/rockers for safety.
Neither drum had any retaining screw. Hit the driver's side drum
with a hammer and it popped right off. Had to put a screwdriver
through one of the holes in the drum on the passenger side, load it
up with the hammer, then whack that side of the drum and it popped
off, too. Put a bucket under the drum to catch brake fluid,
disconnected the hard lines from the backs of the brake cylinders,
removed the cylinders, springs, clips and pads.
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Instead of removing the axles, I decided to cut the backing
plates off with a sawzall. I managed to notch the bracket
where the backing plate is attached, (and where the RDB bracket will be mounted) and took
the first backing plate off in three ugly pieces. The second
time I figured out the trick: Make two cuts opposite from each
other (I chose top and bottom) at very oblique angles. With
the backing plate unbolted and rotated toward you, get as
close to a direct cut straight down while keeping the sawzall
blade between the flange on the end of the axle and the
bracket that just recently held the backing plate. Two quick
cuts and the backing plate was off.
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The trick with the washers on the RDB is that they need to be
ground significantly on one point, so that they form a circle with
a flat side. They were 7/8" OD, 3/8" ID, 1/16"
thick. These washers fill the gap between the caliper surface and
the face of the RDB. I guess the stock mount on Monte Carlos or
whatever has a raised surface where the caliper is close to the
mounting surface.
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Had 85977 rotors milled out by Lee Brewer to 4.185", and they
fit perfectly over the disc on the end of the axle shaft. You can
see how they lie flush with the disc, and the lug nuts are fully
engaged with the studs. I believe the cheaper rotors available for
the Chevy P/U are thicker do not lie flush with the disc on the end
of the axle shaft, and require longer studs.
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You only need to grind a skoash off the rib on the inside of
the calipers, where they comes close to the apex of the inside
curve on Bill's rear disk
brackets. The rebuilt, loaded calipers come with pins and
pads. If you didn't get loaded calipers, you'll need to buy
pins and pads and copper washers.
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I didn't have to deal with brake lines in the rear, just removed
the hard lines from the tee and between the old drum cylinders, and
replaced with Downey braided line from tee to calipers.
It was easier to thread the braided steel brake lines into the tee
at the rear breather if I removed the breather from the axle
first. Keep those brake fittings clean! I used some thread sealant
from ARP, that comes in a tube.
There are two copper washers (AKA "gaskets") that come
with the Monte Carlo calipers. Two copper washers sandwich each of
the banjo fittings on the brake line.
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The big fittings on the master cylinder that receive the brake line
are 22mm, IIRC. The check valve I pulled out was two plastic disks,
one white and one black, which sandwiched some tiny springs. The
black disk had 4 holes in it.
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I made a bracket to support the proportioning valve out of
1/8" steel plate. I put two 5/16" holes for the prop
valve, 1" apart and two 5/16" holes 45mm apart for the
two driver side studs that go through the base of the master
cylinder. No, it's not pretty. I'm still learning how to use a chop
saw, and I made the holes with a hand drill.
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In the front, I inserted a proportioning valve between the stock
rear proportioning valve (present only on '76+ cruisers?) and the
rear brakes. I went to Napa
and got some sections of 3/16" brake line with pre-flared ends
and metric 10mmx1.0 "European" fittings. (Just asked for
"Japanese brake line.") I cut one, bent it into an
S-shape to reach the proportioning valve, then put a 3/8"x24
SAE fitting on it (also from napa) and flared it. I gently bent the
stock hardline that used to go to the stock rear proportioning
valve, so it was oriented to go to the Wilwood proportioning
valve. I cut the end off, removed the stock fitting, inserted
another 3/8"x24 fitting, flared it, and bolted both ends up to
the Wilwood valve. I had to rotate the vacuum line for the booster
about 220 degrees, and trim the hose length.
I used a metric flaring toolkit, and flared the tubing for 5mm.
The fittings on the stock hard lines take a 10mm wrench, and the
"European" lines from
Napa take an 11mm
wrench. The 3/8"x24 fittings take a 7/16" wrench.
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I don't know if this was the right thing to do, or not, but I'd
read that if you allow air into the master, you should bench bleed
it, and that one way of bench bleeding it is to run line from the
output fittings back into the reservoirs, and to actuate the
master. So that's what I did. Did it work? I don't know. Did I need
to do it? I don't know.
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