Lowering the brake pedal

[Toolkat1]

Hello everyone,
I'm new to this forum, seems like to best place to ask my question. I have a 1969 F250 with power drum brakes and a C6. Is there any way to lower the brake pedal? I know the 1973 up Fords advertised the lower brake pedal with power brakes. It's sometimes a real bear to get my foot high enough to get on the break pedal. I have a hip replacement in the right hip, so sometimes I have a few mobility problems. Love the truck, but want to be safe and stop! Any ideas would be great.
Thanks,

Toolkat

[FORDification]

There really isn't. About the only way I'm aware of is just to remove the pedal and rework it to your specifications....that is, welding on an extension to make it lower, and to set down closer to the floor. Removing the pedal is easy...just remove the master cylinder rod connection and then remove the pedal pivot, and the pedal will drop right out. By taking some careful measurements beforehand, a competent welder should be able to fix you up.

[70shortwide]

you can use a pedal from a 73-up truck. im not sure that it is actually lower to the floor though. maybe a little.they are wider too. if you get creative and have a welder or a buddy with one im sure it would be easy to make it lower to the floor.

[fordman]

to put the 73 and up pedal inthe truck you have to use the 67-72 bracket and grind down the sides of the 73 and up pedal to fit inside the 67-72 bracket. i know you would want to keep your master cylinder or brake booster rod stroke the same length. so maybe modding the pedal is your only way of getting this done.

[70shortwide]

to put the 73 and up pedal inthe truck you have to use the 67-72 bracket and grind down the sides of the 73 and up pedal to fit inside the 67-72 bracket. i know you would want to keep your master cylinder or brake booster rod stroke the same length. so maybe modding the pedal is your only way of getting this done.

im not sure about later trucks, but i used one out of a 73. fit fine with no grinding

[FORDification]

The following was taken from the Comparing Clutch/Brake Pedals & Brackets tutorial.

Here's a shot I took when attempting to install a '77 pedal into a '68-'72 bracket:


Since the '73-up trucks' bracket doesn't use the aluminum pivot bushings, the '77 pedal won't fit without some creative grinding. I'm not sure about the earlier '73-up pedals...they might be different. (I DO know that the '78-'79 pedals are completely different and won't work.)

However, the pedal shape and master cylinder pushrod connection point between the two eras are the same. So even though the '73-up pedal is slightly longer in length, it's going to wide up in about the same place after it's installed, so there's really no benefit to installing it.

I'm pretty sure that Ford was able to drop the overall pedal height by relocating the pedal pivot hole farther away from the firewall (on the pivot bracket)....but I might be off on that point. However, if you're creative with a welder, you could do the same thing....if you've got an automatic transmission. This type of modification would also drop the height of the clutch pedal, which could cause pedal travel problems if you got too carried away.

[Toolkat1]

Thanks for all of those suggestions. May try the welding up idea
Toolkat

[Hawkrod]

The following was taken from the Comparing Clutch/Brake Pedals & Brackets tutorial.

Here's a shot I took when attempting to install a '77 pedal into a '68-'72 bracket:
snip

Since the '73-up trucks' bracket doesn't use the aluminum pivot bushings, the '77 pedal won't fit without some creative grinding. I'm not sure about the earlier '73-up pedals...they might be different. (I DO know that the '78-'79 pedals are completely different and won't work.)

However, the pedal shape and master cylinder pushrod connection point between the two eras are the same. So even though the '73-up pedal is slightly longer in length, it's going to wide up in about the same place after it's installed, so there's really no benefit to installing it.

I'm pretty sure that Ford was able to drop the overall pedal height by relocating the pedal pivot hole farther away from the firewall (on the pivot bracket)....but I might be off on that point. However, if you're creative with a welder, you could do the same thing....if you've got an automatic transmission. This type of modification would also drop the height of the clutch pedal, which could cause pedal travel problems if you got too carried away.

I really do hate to correct you but I have posted the info before. Only SOME 78 and 79 pedals are different and some are the same as 73-76. Note that the big change on pedals was actually in 1977 not 1978 and so In 77-79 Ford used a whole bunch of different booster and pedal combinations. Hawkrod

http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... 27#p352327

[FORDification]

Please.....correct away, hawkrod! I have very little experience with the dentside-era pieces, so I'm grateful for any additional info. I must have missed your earlier post...but I just added your info to the Comparing Clutch/Brake Pedals & Brackets tutorial. I'm sure it will help someone out in the future.

You mentioned in the other thread:

...in the 77-79 time...most F250 dual diaphragm boosters will bolt in but the F100 and F350 stuff never seems to...

So based on your experience, what was the physical differences in the mounting...that is, what prevented them from bolting onto the earlier trucks? Was it the brackets and/or design differences in the booster itself? The only '79 booster I ever got my hands on had a curved master cylinder pushrod, such as this:



So you're saying that some '77-'79 applications used the earlier-style booster/brackets?

[Hawkrod]

The problem is the rod length or the rod drop that you show. Some boosters shafts drop and require the matching pedal while others actually have a shorter rod and require a different pedal that mounts in a different hole on the hanger (If you look at some 77-79 pedal hangers they have two holes for mounting the brake pedal while the 73-76 only have one hole) and some boosters have a different length rod but the pedal still mounts in the normal spot but has the mounting pin in a different location (the big Uhaul booster). The variety of 77-79 boosters and brake pedals is disgusting. The F250/F350 dual diaphragm boosters tend to fit the older pedals while boosters for F100, F150 and The big F350 booster seem to be the ones that need a specific pedal. I have 6 dents right now and really never ran into a problem because all of my tucks were F250's and lighter rated F350's which use the common 68-79 dual diaphragm style booster but then I got one of the larger F350 specific boosters from a 78 Uhaul and that is when I discovered the pedal issue. I was not aware of it before that but when I looked it up I was shocked at what Ford did from 77-79. There are 8 different brake pedals in those years! It would really be hard to even make a chart as to what does and does not fit because the pedals were tied to vehicle weight ratings or specific options such as cruise control. To see if a 77-79 booster will fit your older truck have to measure and look hard. First look at the rod to the pedal. If it straight AND the brake pedal mounts in the hole closest to the instrument panel then it MAY fit an older truck BUT if the pedal is mounted to the hole closer to the firewall or the rod drops like the one you posted above then it will not fit an older truck without modifications. Another telltale on booster that won't fit is the brake light switch bracket. If the rod is straight AND the brake light switch bracket is short it may fit but if the switch bracket is long it won't fit. Below are pictures of the rods and pedal mounts on my 76 F250 with the bigger 1978 F350 with the linkage style booster, my 77 1/2 F250 with the linkage style booster, my 79 F350 with a short rod style booster and my 73 with the same linkage style booster as my 77 1/2. You can see that the switch is mounted differently on the 79 pedal, this will not work in a 68-72. Three of these trucks have the linkage style booster which I like best because you can use flat stock and make it fit anyway you want (especially for a 65-67!). Also note that the 77 Uhaul with the linkage style booster has bushings in the pedal hanger as it was a stick (I pulled the clutch pedal and installed a bolt and sleeve) and I will bet the pedals from those will fit the early brackets as they must be narrower due to the bushings (something I had not noticed until you got me to go take pictures just now!). I also have two parts trucks but they are not here at my house so I will have to look at those later. Hawkrod

76 F250 CrewCab w/78 F350 big booster (note switch bracket angle is slightly different than others):



77 1/2 F250 4X4 SuperCab normal length linkage booster:



73 F350 normal length linkage booster:



79 F350 short length rod booster (note long switch bracket):

[fordman]

yeah making a chart for that mess would be hard. i also noticed that in picture 1 the brake pedal bracket has the bushing like ours does. but in pictures 3 and 4 the bracket just has holes for the bolt to go through with no bushing on them. that is diferent. which also gives me the idea that maybe on a 67 you might get away with redrilling the brake pedal bracket to move the brake pedal to use a 68 and up brake booster. i don't know if it would work but it is a idea worth looking at.