John Vahey, from R&P 4WD, and I have been exchanging emails ever since the company started advertising on eWillys. We finally got a chance to meet at Brian’s in Kennewick a couple days ago. John wanted to share with me R&Ps cool new Dual Master Kit for vintage jeeps. To help promote its launch, R&P will be donating the kit as part of a contest eWillys will be holding next month. I’ll describe more about the contest later and will be announcing the winner at the Willys Spring Reunion in May (you won’t have to be at the reunion to win).
One of the slick parts about this system is the simple way it mounts. You actually use the bracket itself as a template using the clutch bar (see pics below). If you want to learn more, you can contact R&P at 503-557-8911 or through its contact page.
Brian mounted the kit and recorded his experience yesterday. He posted pictures and a review at his facebook group, Jeep Thing. Here is his review:
John said it would take about 4 hours. To the average guy, in his driveway, this job will take 4 hrs. The best part was the engineering and attention to detail, oh and the great directions. Hell the entire thing is great. NO frustration factor! This thing is a pleasure to install and looks very clean. R & P hit this one out of the park!”
Here the pictures Brian took of the mounting process. He is testing this out on his M-38A1 project.
An inner frame shot of Brian’s M-38A1
An outer photo of Brian’s M-38A1
Brian removed the outer plate.
Note how the bracket uses the clutch bar to line up the bracket in the proper place for drilling.
With holes drilled, the bracket is flipped around and bolted to the frame.
Here’s the reservoir container and tubes.
Took a look at your site. Good to know what you do for future reference.
That’s a pretty slick setup
Is the Wilwood master cylinder rated for on-road use, or is it only for off-road? The remote reservoir looks wonderful!
Pavel … It’s designed for both. In fact, it’s also design to handle disc or drum brakes, though you need to switch out the inline pressure mechanism to switch between the drums and discs. Feel free to contact R&P for more info.
I’ll have to look at their site to see if they make an Master Cylinder conversion for a Willys FC truck.
I’m bringing an example of the brake setup with me. I thought the FC folks would like to check it out. I’m not familiar with the brake setup, but with your feedback maybe I can forward some suggestions to John.
– Dave
It’s hard enough to add brake fluid through the hole in the floor of a CJ-5, or fighting the steering column and other congestion under the hood of a Jeepster, Wagon or Pickup, all mounted on the frame rail. Unless you have an original plugged hose extending through the dashboard (still not able to see the fluid level), you have to remove the dashboard to fill the master cylinder on a Forward Control truck. I believe that a remote master cylinder is the most necessary conversions in an FC.
This has been done by individuals, but I don’t remember seeing one offered commercially.
1 quanto costa il kit? 2 con questo kit in futuro si puo montare la conversione dischi freno sul mio jeep willys mb 1942 distinti saluti da italia udo
il mio willys gpw a il telaio scatolato di serie e non posso montare il vostro supporto
pompa freni,avete unaltra possibilita saluti udo
my gpw to willys chassis serial box and i cant assemble your support brake master
cylinder you ave another chance gretings udo
prix for kit ???????
vorrei sapere il prezzo
Does anyone know who’s taken over for R&P’s tooling for the kit?
Pete,
I’ll ask John Vahey about it and let you know.
– Dave
Is this kit still available somewhere? Or at least the bracket only?
This looks like the best kit compared to the ones Kaiserwillys for instance offers. I read alot of different opinions on those kits about the size of the master cylinder and issues with fitting it!?
I found the master cylinder used in this kit from Willwood: Wilwood 260-7563 Tandem Master Cylinder w/ Remote Reservoirs, 1 Inch, that can still be ordered but i would need the bracket from this kit, ideally i would need 3 brackets since some friends of mine are planning to upgrade there CJ3a and M38A1 brakes to.
Or perhaps someone still has a digital file of the bracket so i can have them fabricated.
I’m planning to do the Geotracker discbrake upgrade on my CJ3a this winter.
Hi Pepijn,
I’ve FB messengered John to find out if he has any more kits. I bought one from him last year and it was pretty easy to install.
– Dave
Hi all, I am also looking for a source for this kit or individual parts. The R & P web site link takes me to a sex site and the phone number goes to a different number’s mailbox which is full and can’t accept any messages. Thanks! -Barry
Google search shows R&P is permanently closed.
Hi Barry,
Try John Vahey at johnvahey @ yahoo.com (remove spaces around the @). I don’t know if he still had leftover kits or not, but I bought one from him in 2017. If you can’t reach him, email me back at d@deilers.com and I should be able to provide more information about the parts.
– Dave
R&P as it used to be is no longer in business. John Vahey is no longer involved. Richard Imholt (The original R in R&P who started the business) opened up a slightly different business under the name R&P Early Jeeps. No website but Richard’s e-mail is RandPCustom4x4@outlook.com and his phone number is the same as the old R&P number at 503-557-8911. It will forward to his cell phone. He is a one man show now but will get back to you asap if you don’t get him directly and leave a message.
Richard is the one that originally engineered this conversion.
Thanks for the update Nick!