Wilwood Master Cylinder

One of the major fail points for a TR6 brake system is the Master Cylinder. They can, and do, fail without warning, dumping all the brake fluid into the servo or engine bay. If you're using DOT 3 or 4 brake fluid when the failure happens it can damage your paint. DOT 5 brake fluid is a popular, but expensive, measure to protect the engine bay paint from being damaged. What's ironic, to me, is that modern cars all use DOT 3 or 4 brake fluid yet classic car owners have gone to DOT 5 ..... not for better braking performance but for protection.

My current M/C is about 10 years old and probably operating on "borrowed" time so .... this looked like a great upgrade and Wilwood is known for a high quality product.

A few years back I noticed a TR6 on the British V8 site that was using a Wilwood M/C. I was able to get the part number and order one but when Rick Patton and I went to install it we weren't comfortable with the upward angle that it installed at....... so back to the drawing board. Rick is a regular attendee at SEMA and had a conversation with one of the Wilwood reps about finding a M/C for use in the TR6. The rep said there would be a compact unit available later that year............. which turned into 2 years. Fast forward and my car and I are back in Rick's garage to see how/if this compact unit will work. It is a "Goth style" kit 260-14241-BK and has two reservoirs with brackets, and hose included. We also had proportioning valve #260-3279 and a 10psi residual valve that gets mounted after the PDWA in the rear brake line.

Goodparts has a similar unit but it requires removal of the servo to install which in turn requires more pedal effort. This unit bolts directly to the servo so pedal feel stays the same.

You'll need a helper to step on the brake pedal to extend this push rod so you can grab the hidden part with some vise grips. Then you can turn the rod in until the M/C rests flush on the servo...... in other words...... if the rod is out too far, it hits the M/C and prevents it from fitting flush.

Here you can see how it bolts directly to the servo and with the servo plunger properly adjusted it's a nice flush fit.

The two reservoirs come with brackets and tubing that allows them to be mounted "anywhere". We were going to put them on the firewall but my AAW wire harness has a large wire bundle in the way. We also considered the inner fender and then realized that the top of the M/C would probably work best. We wanted to confirm sufficient clearance so some Maine ingenuity came up with this test rig. If we closed the hood and could pull the cardboard easily out we were good to go..... and we were.

You'll want to use a proportioning valve with the M/C and I ordered the one that's made specifically for this kit, part# 260-14248. It integrates perfectly except it won't work on a TR6 as it hits the inner fender. So I swapped that valve for this one that Rick had for the TVR he's restoring. This is a custom aluminum bracket that Rick made.

And this valve will work just fine.

One of nice features of this M/C is that the front reservoir is actually for the front brakes unlike the stock TR6 M/C. Mounting it all up was pretty easy. The hard part is running the brake lines and luckily, for me, Rick is a master at this job..... plus he has a great pneumatic tool for making the flares. The pipes themselves are steel lines with an outer epoxy coating.

"If so a tricky part is making the 3/16" brake lines because they use an odd size bubble flare into the PDWA. I reused one of the fittings off your original line as I did not have it in my inventory (7/16 -20 thread). I can get you the other bubble nut size if you wish. I did not make the bubble flares myself but bought a 51" length of 3/16" premade bubble flared line, cut it in half and discarded the nuts to use the proper size nuts for the PDWA. The other ends were double flared to fit the master and proportioning valve. All the lines to the master and proportioning valve are US thread inverted flares on 3/16" line. We also installed a 10psi Wilwood residual valve for your rear brakes and it takes 3/16" double flare nuts."

In the quote above Rick mentioned a 10 psi WilwoodResidual valve for the rear brakes..... it's the little red thing you see in the picture below. We put it after the PDWA to avoid any potential PDWA problems/tripping.

Here's pictures of the finished installation. Once we got the brakes bled, there was a nice firm pedal and the fronts locked up first. I didn't go into this for improved braking as my brakes were pretty good already... I just wanted the security of knowing I had a M/C that should never fail.