What is the story on the frame brake valve? Do all 69 factory disc brake cars have it? do all Ss cars have it? Seems to be a lot of controversy on this. does anybody know for sure?

Apparently in 1969, Camaros equipped with 12-bolt rears had the valve,..others didn't. So basically, the performance cars and the LM-1 had the valve and the 10-bolt cars did not.

But, in the assy manual, it calls for the 'rear pressure regulator valve' in these cars: Z-28, 396 cars, and 350 2bbl 4-speed cars. So apparently there was a mid-year adjustment (the 350 2bbl cars appeared around Feb I believe, and these were 10-bolt cars). LM-1's and SS-350's are not listed as cars that were to receive the valve,..but obviously some did.

A/C played no factor in 1969 as it did previous years.

Yes,..a bit confusing, and hard to track the General's thinking here, and it's possible the assy line was confused,..and it's possible that LA and Van Nuys cars are different from Norwood cars.

But one thing is constant in 1969,..true 396 cars and Z-28's will have a date matching valve.

Tom there usually is some info. on questions like yours at www.camaros.org , I found this in their site...

"The rear brake pressure regulator valve (aka, proportioning valve), used in 1968-1969 on models with 12-bolt rear axles to improve braking performance by better regulating the pressure ratio from front to rear, was evaluated in a subset of 1967 production models. The platform selected for the evaluation was none other than cars with factory air conditioning, RPO C60! The official rationale from the factory was that the valve was required due to the additional weight of the A/C equipment. This despite the fact that it only took a few other options to quickly add up to substantially more weight than the A/C equipment, yet cars with these other options did not get the benefit of the valve. (CRG suggests that there was no safety issue, and this approach by the factory was a method to put the valve into a broad cross-section of models for testing - but still in cost-limiting smaller numbers.) Apparently satisfied with the results, the valve was included in the mid-year SS396 model, and in earlier mid-year Z28 models (later 1967 Z28s do not have the valve). In 1968 the valve was removed from C60 cars but included in all performance models. In 1969 most 12-bolts have the valve, but there is a subset of 12-bolt models that do not have the valve - CRG is investigating this"