Brake Conversion on 1958 Edsel Pacer
(This conversion allows the use of 15 inch rims only.)
have to be changed. Either because of safety issues or because parts are no longer readily available.
In my case it was the former in that because I tow a 23 foot caravan and I transport the most precious of cargo's namely Lisa and my
little girl Megan so I decided to upgrade my front brakes to Discs. There are many kits available in America that make this
conversion easier they all use 1970's Torino car parts. These tend to lower the front suspension and I didn't want to lower it.
Also I wanted to use parts that were readily available in the UK ( I know most American parts suppliers carry brake parts ). I had
been told that the Vauxhall Senator/Omega parts were a relatively easy swap needing only a new oil seal and by using Sierra
calipers and servo would be up to the job. Apparently this type of conversion had been done on a 57Ford which is basically an Edsel
as they share the same front suspension/brake parts. In the end this piece of information proved to be wrong and although it wasn't
as hard as I initially thought there was quite a bit of headscratching but it all worked out in the end.
Never work on or under a vehicle that is just resting on a jack). Remove the hub dust cap, split pin and castellated nut from the
spindle.
This allows the brake drum to be removed, it is good idea to slacken off the brake shoes off allowing the drum to be removed easily,
or you can take the Neanderthal approach and knock it off with a hammer taking care not to damage the drum.
As the drum houses the front and rear wheel bearings, once the drum is removed all that is left is the brake shoes, springs, backing
plate and spindle.
the road wheels have
been removed.
(Right) With the drum
removed this is what
you will find but don't
take off any springs as
complete unit can be
removed in once piece.
bolts/nuts which can be seen in the photo and the wheel cylinder mounting bolt which is
accessible from the rear of the backing plate. Don't forget to undo the brake pipe as well.
Once the backing plate is removed all that remains is the spindle (Stub Axle). The large hole is
where the wheel cylinder/backing plate mounted, this will be blanked off,the other back plate
mounting holes will be used to mount the brake caliper.
backing plate and wheel cylinder
mounting bolts/nuts
Spindle after all brake
parts removed. Clean
all grease from the
spindle and inspect for
wear.
calipers from E-Bay at a fraction of the recommended retail price. A trial fit
revealed a slight problem, THEY WERE NOWHERE NEAR THE RIGHT SIZE.
Upon measuring the diameter of the spindle and hub bearing there was a 2mm
difference.( the hub bearings were to big. Easy conversion just needs a new oil seal
my A****) Closer examination showed that the problem could be solved with a
sleeve made to fit the spindle and the inner bearing race. After scouring the yellow
pages I found the address of a local engineer. I went round to his workshop but he
"didn't do anything like that but if I tried the bloke at the other end of the units he
might be able to help".I got in touch with the other toolmaker and he could make
exactly what I wanted in the materials I wanted (Hi-Grade steel). I dropped a
spindle and hub off and discussed what I wanted and 1 week later, the sleeves
were ready and all for the princely sum of £20:00.
disc.
Should provide plenty of stopping
power
I didn't think it would be up to powering the Omega calipers, besides I wanted dual
circuit brakes. Again E-Bay came to the rescue in the shape of a new Omega servo
and a used master cylinder. ( the "Tredlevac" was put on E-Bay and went back to the
USA)
rather large hole is left in the
bulkhead,but don't panic as the new
servo covers it up perfectly.
The Omega servo comes with a
mounting collar and luckily all that was
needed was for three new holes to be
drilled in the bulkhead to enable it to be
mounted. The servo connecting rod
even connects straight up to the Edsel
brake pedal and is adjustable so that the
correct position is still retained.
When the collar is mounted the main
servo can then be mounted and
although it is tight to the rocker covers
there is plenty of room and after
cleaning and fitting the master cylinder
looks neat and tidy. This turned out to
be a lot easier than what I thought it
would be and was completed in under
two hours
servo to mounted
bulkhead
(below) New servo fitted to collar
(below left) Although quite close there
is more than enough clearance to the
engine
spindles, this would. They had been made so that they could be "shrunk fit" onto the
spindle. Once fitted they were polished with various grades of emery cloth until the
hub was a snug fit.
and should provide plenty of power
for the Omega calipers
and polished ready for
the hub to be fitted.
position for them. On the Omega they are fitted at the front of the disc but there was not enough room for this type of mount
so after checking the shape of the pads in was determined that they could be mounted at the rear of the disc. The position
chosen necessitated a slight amount of the caliper to be ground but nothing to drastic. A cardboard template was made and
then transferred to wood to give the right shape to the new caliper mounting bracket. ( I decided to use the original backing
plate mounting holes to mount the bracket.) All that is needed know is to get the brackets made up in 10mm steel.
Although only a temporary fit the conversion looks well and should improve the stopping power of my Edsel enormously.
be pre-loaded and a dust cap made and the
calipers need to be cleaned and painted. But the
overall picture of the conversion can be seen.
A new brake light switch and bracket will have to be made as the original switch being hydraulic is no longer used.
repainted with jipgloss
weekend and made up the new
brake pipes for me using a mixture
of the original and new fittings.
Once the pipes were routed and
fitted we bled the system and i had
brakes again. His attention to detail
resulted in a very neat factory look
for the pipework.
to my own design and necessitated the use of extended wheel studs which
I bought from Hauser racing. These will be measured and cut down to
size once the wheels have been refitted. The new dust cap's can be seen
but were slightly wrong and were modified to accept the original dust
caps.
tightened and rechecked
it was time to go for a
road test, the brakes
were good to good as at
the first press of the
pedal everything locked
up, but then again I have
been used to driving with
drums
switch was fitted into a homemade bracket and the wiring altered to suit. Some modification was necessary to the pedal
assembly but nothing major just a slight tweaking of the coupling.
have been overcome. It was a relatively easy swap but not one that I would recommend
anybody without a good mechanical knowledge to attempt.
A good braking system is vital to your's and other road users safety
