Brakes..as luck will have it

[knattrass]

My "pedal to the floor" concern was pure luck we didn't get hurt. As previous post, Zach was just pulling into the garage when the brakes went. As Charles mention - don't assume anything. We figured the m/c went because we could not pump the brakes. We pulled the m/c off with no concerns. When we removed the RF tire and drum, the pads were fairly clean and the hub a little oily/dirty. When we pulled the cyl, there were the famous "crystals" on the face of the pistons underneath the rubber caps. The LF was pretty much the same. When we took the RR off, both pistons fell out onto the floor -right out of the cyl. The LR was a disaster waiting to happen. We found all around the inside of the tire and the cyl totally rusted out. Yikes. We had no idea of the concealed damage - so do yourself a HUGE favor and take a visual inspection. I'll post the pics this weekend.

[knattrass]

We decided to replace the m/c, all 4 cyl, and the 3 hoses. We plan on blowing out the fluid, doing the alcohol flush, and installing DOT5 fluid in the system. Wierd - we had 3 cyl with the bronze crush washers between the retaining bolt and the brass fitting. One cyl had 2 crush washers - one on each side of the brass fitting. Looking at the brass fitting, it has the scribed circular ribs machined on both sides which look like they provide the necessary crush for 2 washers. Are 2 washers correct?

[sbaumgartner]

Yep, two washers ...

Good luck!

Steve

[Nickathome]

Were these original, or old wheel cylinders you are talking about or ones that you replaced the old with, etc?

I know when I worked on my brakes I didn't even fart around with wheel cylinders. I ordered some from Sid Beck and replaced them all.....The MC started giving me trouble not long after and I replaced that as well.

[knattrass]

I ended up buying new, you can see the old ones are very narly..





Here are the new cyl, hoses, and 2 crush washers



We cleaned the backing plate and painted before rebuilding... no one will ever know but its alway nice working on something clean

[Nickathome]

Were these original, or old wheel cylinders you are talking about or ones that you replaced the old with, etc?

I know when I worked on my brakes I didn't even fart around with wheel cylinders. I ordered some from Sid Beck and replaced them all.....The MC started giving me trouble not long after and I replaced that as well.

Please allow me to clarify something that I wrote here earlier. I had to replace my bad master cylinder with one that I had bought from Sid. My post although not in any way meant to imply, might have made it appear that I had bought a MC from Sid that went bad. This was not the case at all. I have never had a problem with any part that I had bought from Sid and everything is working beautifully.....

[knattrass]

Since we had removed the m/c, wheel cyl, and flex hoses, we decided to flush the steel brake lines. We bought a cheap Harbor Freight oil suction tool (looks like a big syringe), taped a plastic sheet down from the running board into the trans hump (in case of spill), cut out a square window over the floorboard access hatch (taped in tight), then we hooked a clear hose to the brake line that connected to the m/c. We had the tube come up thru the access hole, drew in a shot of denatured alcohol (Home Depot), and hooked up the syringe. At the 4 corners, we hooked up tubes and clear old water bottles. An easy push of the syringe, brake fluid came out at each corner followed by alcohol. The rears drained at 3 times the rate of the front so we plugged the rears at 3 shots. We then hooked up the air to the tube and let air blow thru the lines for 20 minutes. Simple and cheap and now we know our lines are good to go.

[Lifer]

..... and now we know our lines are good to go.

I'd still keep an eye on things for a while. You have cleaned the system out pretty well with the alcohol enema, but unless you completely replaced the lines you really have no idea what kind of shape they're in on the inside. Internal rust is common in "ancient" steel lines, as is rubber "rot" in the flexible lines.

[rixm37]

Knattrass
Don't trust those old lines. I had to replace all the lines in my truck. They were full of rust. . The old ones may look good but the walls of the lines might be thinned/corroded due to rust and could burst during a hard stop and with a single resivoir M/C you will loose all of your brakes.
I had a really hard stop in heavy traffic yesterday when a car pulled out in front of me. I was glad for all the work I did to my brakes!!

The cost and time to replace the lines on your outstanding truck is more than worth it.

Just my opinion.

[Wayne64]

Knattrass
Don't trust those old lines. I had to replace all the lines in my truck. They were full of rust. . The old ones may look good but the walls of the lines might be thinned/corroded due to rust and could burst during a hard stop and with a single resivoir M/C you will loose all of your brakes.
I had a really hard stop in heavy traffic yesterday when a car pulled out in front of me. I was glad for all the work I did to my brakes!!

The cost and time to replace the lines on your outstanding truck is more than worth it.

Just my opinion.

I agree big time. I've owned and driven many a vehicle with a single circuit system. And rusted lines are a real possibility, heck my 78 Ranchero rot box blew two steel lines in less than a year. The last hot rod I did was a 64 full sized Ford and not only did it get a disc conversion but a dual MC. If you want to keep the single circuit contact these folks, it will cost some bucks but peace of mind is a good thing. Once they get a set of bad OEM lines and scan them they keep the record and can CNC them for us all in the future.I did S.S. lines on a 60 T-bird and never worried about the brakes again.

http://www.inlinetube.com/

[spainex]

I had InlineTube.com CNC copy all my m37 lines(fuel,brake,vent) in stainless with stainless armor and they did an excellent job,although very pricey.[/b][/quote]