Part 7: Whoa There, Son-Valiant Gets New Brakes

With the hard lines in place, we attached the Master Power supplied rubber lines. Don't forget the brass washer on each side of the fitting at the caliper.

After you have tightened the fitting where the hard and soft lines connect, insert the clip that holds it all in place.

To remove the old master cylinder from the firewall, unbolt the rod that goes from the pedal to the master cylinder. This feat does require a contortionist, so be prepared. Once you disconnect the rod, remove the four bolts that secure the master cylinder to the firewall.

After you have "bench bled" the master cylinder, mount it to the firewall. Then install the Master Power-supplied adjustable brake-pedal cylinder rod.

Here you can see that the master cylinder is mounted and the new brake line from the master cylinder to the equalizer block for the back brakes is in place. We also installed a Biondo Line-Lock from Summit and mounted that to the inner fender. This requires brake-line fabrication, but Summit also supplied one of their Line-Lock install kits, which has various lengths of steel line and an assortment of fittings.

When it was time to crank up the torsion bars, we contacted Mancini Racing and upgraded from the original six-cylinder bars to the 340 resto units. For racing only, the smaller six-cylinder bars react quicker and aid in weight transfer. Our Valiant will see more street time, so a nicer ride was planned.

With all lines installed, the only thing left to do was bleed the brakes and wire-in the Line-Loc.

The Master Power instructions say to use 15-inch wheels. We had a set of 14-inch Ralleys from an '80-something Aspen. These wheels (made for disc brakes) cleared just fine, so we mounted newly released Firestone Indy 500 tires and placed them on the car.