My 17 year old son and I are swapping a 440 into the ol' '75 D100 ("Banana Truck"). This project is for him.



We finished the steering/suspension rebuild with van LCA's...



Going to drop the motor and tranny in after painting the firewall Viper yellow...



I know the tall valve covers won't clear the power brake booster so in the interest of keeping things simple (and cheaper) going to swap to manual brakes. I already have a truck manual MC on the shelf. I'm guessing the factory used a studded reinforcing/mounting plate of some kind? Can anyone shed additional light on this?

I don't recall any re-enforcement place but you can always customers make a plate just bigger than the booster pattern. weld stud or nuts to it or make it thice enough to tap the holes than use a nut on the backside?

Check my thread out as I reinforced the manual MC from front to back.
https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/show...part=4&vc=1

Thanks for the feedback 76dodgeboy and Hemi-Ram! Looks like the simplest thing will be to fab a mounting plate. But, jeez, I hope we don't end up doing a heater delete too.

while the front end is blown apart, now would be the best time to add a steering box brace.

Looks good. What did you paint the steering gear with?

Steering gearbox and frame I used rustoleum satin black. The gray parts you see are just a ceramic primer.

Is the steering box brace basically a backing plate and strut - factory piece?

We used Rustoleum on the frame too, Duplicolor on other components.

Degreased the firewall (and removed a ton black sealer/undercoat) before hitting it with a DA. Used Rustoleum inside the cowl. Going to prep the inner fenders and core support before spraying some primer on everthing. Going to give Summit Racing's repackaged "whatever" paint a shot on this one (after all my kid will be driving it).

It is used to support the steering gearbox and I think you might find some on junkyard trucks. I got mine from the dodge connection but I don't see one on his website. Maybe scratch will chime in as he probably knows where you can find one.

http://www.dodgeconnection.com/catalog/item/2901766/4541374.htm

Currently unavailable. Junkyard or make one

I have a friend with a couple of those braces for sale if you want 1.

here is a stock plate for the outside of firewall MC area with a stock manual brake rod = rod 7" long.

you can get an adjustable rod from mancini. IIRC

I made an alum plate used larger bolts bolting it to firerwall and then 2 bolts thru firewall to a alum 2 bolt MC = stock mc from vac brake bosster.

IMHO I would use the alum 2 bolt MC over a cast iron MC.

I weighed all of my delete and add ons shaving a full 200lbs off the nose of my 88-440truck going manual steer/manual brake/alum intake/alum wp housing/ mimi starter/mini alt/ heater box delete/weld rims

weighs in under 3800lbs now with me in it.