Opinions on universal or wilwood brake pedal conversion.
Hey Guys,
I’m usually on here helping with engine, ignition, and fueling questions, so hopefully I can get the favor returned I’m Hoping someone that has used a wildwood or similar aftermarket pedal can help uncloud my thoughts.
For those of you that just want the short question, here we go: Has anyone removed the factory brake pedal, in favor of aftermarket, to correct bad pedal geometry?
The extended version;
To try and make this as short as possible. My dart started as a 4 wheel drum, power brake car. At some point, it was upgraded to a power front disc brake kit, which used challenger brake booster / MC, and challenger brake booster brackets. It retained the stock pedal, rod linkage, and used firewall brackets that came with the kit. They kicked the power booster higher in the engine bay. All of this surprisingly bolted on.
Well after a tubular front end conversion, yet another change came, and the power booster was removed, and replaced with a FWD 80’s aluminum master cylinder, but it was bolted directly to the old power booster brackets, and not to the firewall as I see many manual brake cars have.
My dilemma now, is that after 15 years of bracket racing, my factory pedal is bent, sticking, and the brake light switch is grounding out on the pedal arm. I’m chasing everything from blown fuses, to my wildwood front brakes sticking all because of this OE and aftermarket mashup of junk.
Much like my 40 year old gas pedal gave up after a decade of bracket racing, I figured I could toss it, and install a universal type brake pedal in place of the OE brake pedal. This would allow me to install a pressure brake light switch pretty easy, and un-clutter the mess of brackets and bent pedals I have under the dash.
After looking at the current setup today, I’m even more confused, as it appears the factory steering column will prevent me from installing the wildwood pedal below, as the factory pedal is actually bent around the steering column to fit.
On the engine side, It appears if I were to try and use the factory hole in the firewall for the pedal rod, and mount the MC there, while removing the firewall brackets, it’d be right in the way of my headers…
Kinda at a loss for how to proceed. Did power and manual brake cars have different pedal arms? Seems any of these nice aftermarket pedals aren’t going to mount to the firewall around the column.
Help from a fellow bracket racer or chassis fab member that ditched the OE pedal would be awesome!
Thanks all for hearing out my long winded pedal issue!
Hey Guys,
I’m usually on here helping with engine, ignition, and fueling questions, so hopefully I can get the favor returned I’m Hoping someone that has used a wildwood or similar aftermarket pedal can help uncloud my thoughts.
For those of you that just want the short question, here we go: Has anyone removed the factory brake pedal, in favor of aftermarket, to correct bad pedal geometry?
The extended version;
To try and make this as short as possible. My dart started as a 4 wheel drum, power brake car. At some point, it was upgraded to a power front disc brake kit, which used challenger brake booster / MC, and challenger brake booster brackets. It retained the stock pedal, rod linkage, and used firewall brackets that came with the kit. They kicked the power booster higher in the engine bay. All of this surprisingly bolted on.
Well after a tubular front end conversion, yet another change came, and the power booster was removed, and replaced with a FWD 80’s aluminum master cylinder, but it was bolted directly to the old power booster brackets, and not to the firewall as I see many manual brake cars have.
My dilemma now, is that after 15 years of bracket racing, my factory pedal is bent, sticking, and the brake light switch is grounding out on the pedal arm. I’m chasing everything from blown fuses, to my wildwood front brakes sticking all because of this OE and aftermarket mashup of junk.
Much like my 40 year old gas pedal gave up after a decade of bracket racing, I figured I could toss it, and install a universal type brake pedal in place of the OE brake pedal. This would allow me to install a pressure brake light switch pretty easy, and un-clutter the mess of brackets and bent pedals I have under the dash.
After looking at the current setup today, I’m even more confused, as it appears the factory steering column will prevent me from installing the wildwood pedal below, as the factory pedal is actually bent around the steering column to fit.
On the engine side, It appears if I were to try and use the factory hole in the firewall for the pedal rod, and mount the MC there, while removing the firewall brackets, it’d be right in the way of my headers…
Kinda at a loss for how to proceed. Did power and manual brake cars have different pedal arms? Seems any of these nice aftermarket pedals aren’t going to mount to the firewall around the column.
Help from a fellow bracket racer or chassis fab member that ditched the OE pedal would be awesome!
Thanks all for hearing out my long winded pedal issue!