Brake repair project

[ACPaul58]

I'm getting ready to do a major brake repair on our 50 Dodge & 49 Plymouth. What supply companies has anyone had good or bad experiencies with for Barke parts? I'm in need of eveything to do with the hydraulic systems (Master cylinder, Wheel cylinders and brake lines) :confused:I see that there are many suppliers out there but who to go to? I'm on the east coast. If you would send me a direct EMail to orangewizard@msn.com I would get your reply faster. Thanks

[Plymouthy Adams]

I believe in the recent past in light of where the wheel cylinder are being made and the failure rate, most consider the best money be put to resleeving your original with brass or stainless...the stainless would be best in the long run but a tad more to begin with..

[Dodgeb4ya]

Make sure that Rock Auto sells you the professional grade of brake parts. The cheaper parts are chinese last a year parts. Been there done that.

[IronMike]

I went through the brake system in my 50 Dodge this past year. I budgeted about a $1000 dollars for everything, including some new tools.

I had my M/C and wheel cylinders sleeved by White Post about $650. Lifetime warranty and not that much more expensive than buying new parts manufactured with questionable tolerences. Billy was great to deal with and turn around time was about a week.

I got my rubber hoses through my local NAPA, and the metal line through O'Reilly. The metal lines are AGS and bendable by hand, but I found that I still needed a tubing bender for some of the more complex bends. I don't have my receipts in front of me but I think I have about $60 in the AGS lines and about another $40 in the rubber hoses.

Tennessee Clutch and Supply re-lined all 8 brakeshoes for about $45! cheaper than I could buy 1 axle's worth through any of the venders I could have purchased them through. If you can't source them locally you might try TC&S and come out cheaper even with shipping.

I bought a nice 180 degree tubing bender from Northern tool for about $20. I did a lot of research about flaring tools and went with the Rigid model 345 DL.

I spent about $90 on it, but I am not disappointed! I have never done any flaring prior to this project and this is a quality tool that made life much easier. I did practice on some scrap brake line to improve my technique.

I couldn't find the Rigid locally for less than $120 so I bought it and a Rigid tubing cutter from Coastaltool.com. A store front in the New England area.

I would have stayed under budget except I decided I wanted an AMMCO 1750 to round out my tool collection...... Which set me back...... well..... not telling in case my wife reads this.........

[Plymouthy Adams]

still probably less than the pair of shoes and matching handbag..

[IronMike]

still probably less than the pair of shoes and matching handbag..

Probably so........ actually my wife is pretty low maintenance and very supportive of my addictions.

[JerseyHarold]

There is a company on eBay advertising new master cylinders for our cars for about $130.00 that are made in China. My gut feeling is that the Mopar vendors are also sourcing it from China, hence the lower pricing from Bernbaum and Roberts.

[Robert Horne]

Working on my brakes on my 48, I bought new axle/wheel seals from Napa, but they only had one. I found the Napa supplier, and the supplier that supplys them. The seal came from Zhiengang, China. I ordered more seals from the company in China through another company in China. The China seals are stamped, "USA".

[Alexander]

My cars sit alot, as such I always had corrosion problems.

The last time I re-did my brakes, I converted to silicon DOT 5 brake fluid. I No longer have problems with corrosion. Search the boards for further details. Perhaps its something you may want to consider.

Good luck!

[greg g]

You might want to look at converting the frot brakes to disc. Much easier to deal with down the road and better performance for about the same cost as a totla rebuild. plus down the road you will have less mantainence and parts costs.

There are several sources for these conversion, one of whom is a member of this forum group. you can view his products at www.rustyhope.com.