Just went for my first real cruise with the car since buying it. You know what happens the first time anyone of us drives our cars for the first time. Your senses are going NUTS looking for & listening to everything.

Before putting it on the road I installed a new master cylinder a bled all the brakes. The pedal is firm and the car seems to brake all right. The brake pedal only has MAYBE 1" of travel before hitting the stop. Can anyone verify if this is correct or not.

 

It sounds OK to me. With good brake linings and good master and wheel cylinders, there is very little movement of my brake pedal. The stop light switch adjustment is fairly critical but everything else is fine. With brakes like these, I wonder why some people consider changing to disc brakes. I'm definitely not a wild driver but I feel my brakes are very satisfactory.

 

Agreed. They are plenty fine for the type of driving I plan on doing.

 

My 66 Delta only has minimal travel. It is a little disconcerting at first, but you get used to it.

 

I have a '65 Jetstar I, pretty much the same braking system. I think it stops this huge car fairly well, all things considered (60s technology, size of the car, etc). In 5+ years of ownership, I had just one situation where I wished they were better...some guy started to pull out in front of me from a side street while I was traveling a good 45 miles per hour. I locked the brakes up and the sight and hellish noise of my 18+ foot / 2+ ton car screeching to a halt put the fear of God in him such that he (thankfully) stopped in mid dick-move.

 

When I was 16, there was a time when I had to pump the brake pedal on my '56 Chevy at least once to get any pedal at all. It really didn't cause a problem until I drove my boss's '63 Dynamic. There was an elderly couple who walked to the grocery store, and he would deliver them and their groceries home. Once, he sent me to take them home. They both climbed into the front seat with me, I started the car, put it in gear and when I reached the street, stomped the brake pedal to pump up the brakes like in MY car!
These folks didn't speak English, but they said a lot with their eyes when they got back off the dash! Heck, the old lady was barely bleeding from hitting the mirror, and I'd bet his bruises healed in a couple of weeks, but they didn't come back to get groceries the next week . . .
DW

 

When I had 4 wheel drums on my 66 98, they had very little travel. Long since swapped to disc/drum.

On my 66 Starfire, they have a dual master from '67, but still pretty short travel.

In sum, yes short travel on these cars is normal.

 

Which kit did you use for front disc??

 

I had about 5 different 66 b body cars and all had next to no travel on the pedal while braking. Even my 4spd Delta with MANUAL brakes has little travel and stops quite well as long as it is not a panic situation.... in the one or 2 instances I had to stop in a hurry I found myself with haunches off the seat and a real effort on the pedal....it worked!