As the on-lookers here will attest, Diane and I went down this slick hill twice backwards, with little or no control. This picture was taken during one of my first outings with the Jeep were I had a chance to climb mud hills like that one. Before then I would have had to pass, but now with the fuel injection keeping me running no matter what, the locker (only one at the time) giving me much better traction, and mud terrain tires that didn't turn into slicks the second they touch dirt.

What I didn't know until the very moment captured in the top pictures, is that my stock manual brakes have no chance of holding the Jeep on this type of hill if I failed to make it to the top. That was especially true after a few hours of wet trail riding when the brakes are good and wet. Needless to say, I had a scary ride backwards down the hill with little control. It was a lot like those roller coasters that swoop up a totally vertical track, reach a stop for a split second and then drop out from underneath you, replaying the first part of the ride in reverse. Once I got to the bottom I had to try again, and again didn't make it.This time a faired a little better, because I just quick put the Jeep in reverse as soon as I knew I wasn't gonna make it, and we were spared the adventure. On my third attempt, I found the gas pedal and managed to slop my way to the top. At that moment that I knew some type of brake improvement was needed.

Of course, there are options other then buying a pre-made power brake product. You could find a donor Jeep that has power brakes and swap it into you vehicle, or retrofit a hodgepodge of parts to assemble your own power brake setup. I also think rear discs would make a big difference, because my fronts discs worked much better then my rear drums when wet.

What I Bought..

What I bought was a dual diaphram 9" vacuum operated power brake booster with master cylinder and a disc/drum proportioning valve from Master Power Brakes . I think I spent about $500 for this setup, including hoses and fittings.

Installing..

There is not much of a write up, because you wont need one. This product was a bolt-in deal with only a couple exceptions.

The push rod that connects to the brake pedal can not be adjusted short enough to work properly. I had to cut about 3/4" from both pieces of the push rod to allow me to shorten it as needed. See Picture

The brake lines don't just screw into the new master cylinder. On my Jeep, the factory proportioning valve is attached to the inside of the frame rail just below the drivers feet. Since I bought a new valve, I removed this valve and used a coupling to add brake line to the existing line. I ran this new line up to the mew valve which is mounted (well not really, just just kind of hangs from the brake master cylinder) just under the master cylinder.

Performance..

Were a mouth guard! I'm actually concerned about the potential front axle wrap if I slam on the brakes when I'm drive on dry pavement! The brakes work great and have no trouble stopping my 35" swampers with only moderate pedal pressure.

Any Grips?

Yeah! The proportioning valve came with a not-so-universal mounting bracket that I could not figure out. The kit came with two specially bent pieces of tube to connect the master cylinder to the valve and a bracket that is supposed to mount the valve to the master cylinder. I gave it my best shot, but for the life of me, I couldn't get the tubes and bracket to agree. That's why my proportioning valve just hangs from the brake lines, and isn't actually mounted to anything.

Back to ww.mikesjeep.com front page?

Send mail to mike@mikesjeep.com?

Master Power Brakes web site?