I would like to put a hydraulic breaking system on my 5 window cupe, I think it is a Eagle (I was told by the guy who sold it to me it was a Master Eagle) but I see conflicting information in the chat postings. It has no post between the window and the wind wing and the wind wing pivits (does not roll down)?? Can you give me information on where to get the parts for the breaking system, if it can be done, and information on how to do the conversion? Thanks, denkay4adr

Hi there and welcome to Chevy Chatter II. Glad to have you with us!

Regarding the hydraulic brake conversion on your 1933, someone here should be able to help you with your question, however most of us on this site restore our cars to original condition. If you are building a street rod or a modified car you might also want to try a street rod web site too since those dudes have tons of information and lots of experience on doing conversions and etc.

Good luck with your project.

Hi Denny,

It's either a Master, or an Eagle, not both. Sounds like the seller had it right. I believe the very early Eagle had knobs instead of the shorter window cranks and the wing window turned out after the roll up window was rolled down a bit to clear the channel, which is attached to the main window.

As far as the hydraulic brakes go, It is almost a bolt up procedure. I did the same conversion to my '33 Eagle back when I didn't know how much trouble I would have with the hydraulic brakes over the years. You can't let them sit without driving for long periods of time. I have since gone to stainless sleeves in the cylinders, which seems to be helping so far. A good well adjusted mechanical brake system is what I would keep, if I were to do it again.

Basically I took the drums and backing plates from a 1936 Master and bolted them on. I had to use front drums on the back as well as the front and even added a spacer between the rear axle flange and the rear backing plates to get the drums to line up with the shoes. The rear backing plates have 4 mounting holes and the rear axle flange has 8 holes, but if you square off the flange, the remaining holes match the 4 in the backing plate. I used the emergency brake cable hooked into the mechanical emergency brake linkage. When all is working normal it stops on a dime.

Roger

Roger, I assume you used all the 36 parts including the master cylinder and pedal linkage. How did you adapt the 36 master cylinder and pedal to the 33 frame? Can this be done in a way that allows you to convert back to the original manual system?

Jolo - Initially I had designed the system to use twin master cylinders with one controlling the clutch. I had to modify the riveted frame brace where the original pedal bracket bolted to the frame to mount the master cylinder. This would have to be replaced if going back to original.

Well I wasn't too well versed with mechanical advantage at the time and ended up sacking the hydraulic clutch idea, as I had to keep pumping on the clutch pedal to get the slave cylinder to move far enough to disengage the clutch. I changed my new mounting bracket slightly to get the original pedal bracket back in position, then mounted the master cylinder 180 degrees to the rear and installed a drag link to the sawed off pedal in the master cylinder. Works fine now, but still regret not keeping the original brakes.

Roger