De-Defroster

Today I started by installing the left caliper. The right will have to wait until I get the part as it seems to be hard to find these calipers all of a sudden. I had ordered the 10" hose (BH20996) and on the left at least, it is plenty long. I think it will be OK for the right too. Caliper went on without incident. Everything fit as it should without the  need to use the grinder on any parts.  ;-)  The easy work is over. Now comes the hard stuff.

I started to pull the old front brake line and found there was no way the lines were going to come off the distribution block without a big fight or a big pair of snips. I chose the snips. I quickly figured out it wasn't going to be easy with the original brake master in place. I removed the brake pedal first. One U-bolt around the steering column, two wires to the brake light switch, and a clip holding the pushrod to the pedal pad. No problem there. Then 4 bolts through the floorboard and the master/booster fell loose. But then I then figured out that there was not much chance of the original master/booster coming out from under the car because there is the starter and a hump in the frame blocking easy exit. I saw that the floor panel around the column was easily removable and the master/booster came through the opening without a fuss. It's got a rebuild sticker on it from Dallas, Texas. No telling if they did a good job or not. I would have it gone through again before putting it back on if I ever decided to do that.

With the master gone, it wasn't too traumatic to get the hard line for the right out. I ended up getting the right end loose and with that titled out over the radiator support, the left then came forward out  of the engine bay too. Had a bit of trouble getting around the fuel pump flex hose. The left hard line is short and was simple.

I figured I might as well continue to pull stuff off I wasn't going to need so I tried to pull the defroster. The shop manual is no help at all when you've removed the obvious two bolts from the sides and disconnected the linkages. The inspection mirror revealed a stud that has to be removed from the inside of the car and goes through the bottom of the defroster ducting manifold. The hoses don't leak too much fluid when they are unhooked.

Along the way I stopped in to my computer long enough to manually snipe bid a complete brake pedal assembly for a '55 Chevy. It looks like a good candidate to mount on the Pontiac firewall. Got it for a lot less than Eckler's Classic Chevy wants for a used pedal alone without the bracket. This one includes the stoplight switch, which hopefully is still good, and the return spring. The rubber foot pad doesn't show any wear either, but I ordered a spare anyway as they are cheap.

I guess tomorrow I can think about bending up some new stainless brake lines once I figure out where I'm mounting the proportioning valve.