If the brakes on that truck have been modified, you may have a miss match of cylinder size. It take effort to get the manual brakes on these trucks to work but not the amount of force you are indicating yours needs.

 

The brakes may not have been changed, I have a 1954 Big Job with juice brakes for the truck and what I believe is a compressor/air brake system for a trailer.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure on it. It seemed odd to me that they would have switched them to air then back again. I would have thought once you swapped it over it would have stayed swapped over. However it did have a huge air compressor on the back of it, a good 9,000# payload, so the air brakes make sense to have. I didn't notice any sort of trailer hitch or connection in the back, but I didn't take off the bed and I wasn't the most detail-catching person at the time I saw it, lol. It's not in any pictures I have but they could have taken it off to use on a different truck. I didn't see the air lines going past the tank either (nothing to go to the wheels or a trailer), I took it off years ago so I can't really check it out and make sure anymore. Bummer.

I dunno, if it's not something I can basically fix for free right now it's just going to wait till I have the new axles (and thus brakes) I want in it. It bothers me how much I skid when I stop quickly and how much pressure it takes to stop it rather than just slow it. It's a lot. The brakes work till then, but it's like you're not really stopping till you're putting everything you have into if you're trying to stop less than a bus length. It feels a bit like driving a train.

 

It doesn`t have a brake booster?

 

No brake booster that I've seen. Just a master cylinder, nothing between it and the pedal or it and the brake lines. I'm a bit stumped as to why it takes so much effort other than the weight of the wheels, cause they are heavy suckers, lol.

 

If the booster is missing or not working I would expect that the brakes will be very hard to apply.

 

Did they all originally have them? I'm not see anything that would indicate having one , though I'm sure I could use one .

 

I`m not up on these older trucks, I`ll have to check my 54 Big Job to see if it has one. It`ll be afew days before I can get to see it tho.

 

Ours ('55 F500) came without. We're in the process of adding one.

 

My 56 f600 came with hydrovac booster mounted on the frame behind the master cylinder. I have driven the truck with no vacuum to the booster and it takes pedal pressure just like you are describing to stop.

Just looked in the 56 truck shop manual, it says the brake booster came on the f600 but was an option on the f500.

I'll keep an eye out for a brake booster for you. It will make a big difference
and is easy to install.

 

You'll also need the booster, a different brass fitting for the end of the MC, some kind of bracket to hold the booster, and the lines will need to be just tweaked to fit. Piece of cake!
Lookie here for plumbing:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/showthread.php?p=12457018#post12457018

 

Hi Stephen. I am by far not an expert on our old trucks but I have had some experience with my 55. I am pretty sure that the reason for your hard braking is the fact you don't have the air vacuum booster. If your front brakes are original they should be the same as my 55. I just rebuilt the wheel cylinders and was amazed as to how small they were on the front. When I checked their operation with the front wheel off the ground I could still turn the wheels even though I was pushing as hard as I could on the brake pedal with the other hand. It was obvious that it would take a lot more pressure to lock them up then I could with my hand. Also, under the bed I have about a 3 foot long air vacuum tank that has a hose running to the vacuum line coming into the booster from the engine . One of the 56's I tore down for parts many years ago had the exact same master cylinder and booster ( which I still have ) but I am not sure if it had the tank. If it did I must have sent it to the scrap yard which is sort of unusual because I tend to keep anything I feel I could ever use, unless it was obviously junked out. The tank seems to make sense as far as volume is concerned. I would imagine that if you intend to keep the original front brakes that you will need to get a booster for them.
If I am wrong on any of my assumptions please feel free to correct me.
Off topic a little. In your other thread I noticed you make damascus knives. Do you make your own steel or do you buy the stock? Your work looks very nice. One of my other hobbies has been custom knife making for over 30 years. I was making damascus before you were born. LOL. I have specialized in traditional Japanese swords for the most part and I understand completely how hard it is to make a living doing the things you love to do.

Louie

 

My F500 came with a booster mounted as you describe. No tellin' the condition of things inside though.

 

Thanks guys.

It looks like at one point I should have had a brake booster since I have the 5 socket manifold at the end of the master cylinder. My guess is things were converted to air brakes then back again for some reason and the booster was lost. The truck worked at a gold mine for the first 50 years of its life, I recon they didn't go over 20mph so it probably wasn't a big enough deal to look into.

I might see if can find one easy enough, but more than likely I'll just end up re-doing the whole brake system a little bit later on. I'd rather have disc brakes, power brakes and a dual chamber master cylinder to say the least. This truck feels a little too much like a train at the moment, lol.

Thanks for the help!

Louie, I do my own damascus. I buy specialized steel to do it with, but don't do anything with core iron (I don't think that's what you meant, but I know of people who do actually make their very own steel from iron core, it's awesome, but an amazing amount of work and not practical for anything other than the joy of doing so. Something I'd love to do but there is no living it in it untill you're a true master at it and even then it's a rare market) I'd love to see some of your work, the Japanese have always held a soft spot in my heart when it came to their swords and all they did around them. I even spent many years wielding one in iaijutsu (the full name being a long one that no one will read without going cross-eyed). I unfortunately had to give it up a couple years back, but my nihonto still remains a center piece.

 

Stephen check your messages.
Louie