Had some time today so fired up the heater in the garage and started my Cobra brake booster install.
Back story, last winter I upgraded to 4 lug rear disc and master cylinder but decided to try it with the stock booster, pedal was too hard for my liking
so unfortunately I knew what I needed to do.
I know changing a heater core on these cars is commonly know as the number one pain in the !@# , imo installing a Cobra booster on a car with engine, harnesses
etc. intact has to be a top 3 pain in the !@#!! Probably didn't help that the engine in my car is a 351w based stroker with taller deck height.
I will admit I am not great a documenting things because I kind of get into a zone when I'm working on cars and forget to take pics along the way.
But if anyone is curious here's a brief description with some pics of my process and a few pics attached.
Things I needed to remove :
Lower steering wheel cover
Knee bolster
Knee bolster reinforcement
Removed master cylinder and mounting bracket rotated forward / down. Surprisingly you can move it quite a bit saved me from bleeding brakes again thanks @Mustang5L5
Dipstick and had to bens tube out of the way ( probably 393w issue )
Unplugged large harness connection by drivers strut tower to give me slack to pull it up out of the way
Various vac hoses
Firewall clutch adjuster, had to screw it all the toward firewall
Drivers valve cover
Clutch cable bracket
Old booster was pretty easy to remove , pushed drivers seat all the way back and it's a pretty straight shot to upper nuts for booster using a combo of extensions and deep 3/4"
socket, lower nuts are easy to get to as well as removing clip etc. on pedal stud. Removing knee bolster is key to getting to the upper mounting nuts.
Fitting the Cobra booster was a lesson in patience to say the least !
I had the booster in and out probably 8-10 times with multiple flogging sessions between my 3lb sledge and strut tower. I know people have said they've gotten this booster in without massaging strut tower but there was no way around it for me.
I would get booster a little closer every time then mark strut tower , pull out booster , flog tower , reinstall and so on.
Took me about 5hrs. by myself for removal and install , still need to reinstall drivers valve cover but I want to touch it up first since it got a few nicks during the process.
Anyways here's some pics , I did measure pushrod length using MM instructions prior to install.
Back story, last winter I upgraded to 4 lug rear disc and master cylinder but decided to try it with the stock booster, pedal was too hard for my liking
so unfortunately I knew what I needed to do.
I know changing a heater core on these cars is commonly know as the number one pain in the !@# , imo installing a Cobra booster on a car with engine, harnesses
etc. intact has to be a top 3 pain in the !@#!! Probably didn't help that the engine in my car is a 351w based stroker with taller deck height.
I will admit I am not great a documenting things because I kind of get into a zone when I'm working on cars and forget to take pics along the way.
But if anyone is curious here's a brief description with some pics of my process and a few pics attached.
Things I needed to remove :
Lower steering wheel cover
Knee bolster
Knee bolster reinforcement
Removed master cylinder and mounting bracket rotated forward / down. Surprisingly you can move it quite a bit saved me from bleeding brakes again thanks @Mustang5L5
Dipstick and had to bens tube out of the way ( probably 393w issue )
Unplugged large harness connection by drivers strut tower to give me slack to pull it up out of the way
Various vac hoses
Firewall clutch adjuster, had to screw it all the toward firewall
Drivers valve cover
Clutch cable bracket
Old booster was pretty easy to remove , pushed drivers seat all the way back and it's a pretty straight shot to upper nuts for booster using a combo of extensions and deep 3/4"
socket, lower nuts are easy to get to as well as removing clip etc. on pedal stud. Removing knee bolster is key to getting to the upper mounting nuts.
Fitting the Cobra booster was a lesson in patience to say the least !
I had the booster in and out probably 8-10 times with multiple flogging sessions between my 3lb sledge and strut tower. I know people have said they've gotten this booster in without massaging strut tower but there was no way around it for me.
I would get booster a little closer every time then mark strut tower , pull out booster , flog tower , reinstall and so on.
Took me about 5hrs. by myself for removal and install , still need to reinstall drivers valve cover but I want to touch it up first since it got a few nicks during the process.
Anyways here's some pics , I did measure pushrod length using MM instructions prior to install.