brake cylinder, drag link question

[bosworth]

I have a couple of questions and I have read over as many of the old threads as I can find.  

I have have my 52 B3B just about completely stripped down and am at the point of putting it back together. I am installing a 90 Jeep cherokee axle with drum brakes.

I plan to order parts tomorrow.  I will need to replace the two front wheel cylinders.  The ones that are on the truck now are marked L and R and have two different bores in each cylinder.

The PO had the sides reversed.  When I look on line at our major suppliers,  there is no separate listing for right or left, so I am assumining that they have the same (1 3/8"?) bore.   I find a cylindar in rock auto, a Centric 134.6700.  Listed as a 1 3/8" bore with 7/16-20 inlet.  These are reasonably priced.  Has any one used them?  Is there a major problem with only one bore size?

I also need to replace the drag link.  I can find a new replacement link for about $300.  It is very tempting to consider either modifing a different link Like the Moog DS1000 by bending, cutting and splicing it to length.  Or doing what Fernando Mendes did by replacing the ends of the old link with tie rod ends (Moog es 158 R or L).  Has anyone done anything with either of these ideas?  Buying new tie rod ends is about $65 a diffent drag link about $100.  Are there better alternatives out there for the parts I've mentioned or should I just bite the bullet and order the Rare Parts 25231.

Many thanks for your advice

Bill

[Bobacuda]

I got my drag link for about $165 on EBAY, but you have to troll it until one at a reasonable price becomes available.  Prior to that, I was considering having a machine shop modify my old one like Fernando's.  In fact, I kept the old drag link with this thought in mind for the future..

 

I also had a bad front hub - wallowed out and would not hold the bearings in place.  Meanwhile, I was also not enthused about the price, availability and quality of the brake parts I was finding for the original front brakes, and I have never been a fan of adjusting them or how they acted in heavy rain - mine always got wet enough to make braking an adventure.  After reading that others had swapped out the front spindles and brakes with those from a Sweptline series Dodge truck, I went to the boneyard, knocked out the kingpins and removed the spindles and all brake components from a 1970 Dodge 1/2 ton truck.  I knocked the kingpins out of my truck, then installed the 1970 stuff on my truck with new kingpins.  Rebuilding 1970 front brakes was easy and all parts (including bearings) were less expensive and easy to find - and since I had put a '90 Dodge Dakota differential in my truck, all of the brakes are now self adjusting.  While I was at it, I had the L-hand lugs removed and put in R-hand lugs.  Now the entire truck has R-hand lugs.

 

If you go this route, you will also need to change the rubber lines to match the newer truck wheel cylinders.  I was replacing all of my lines (royal PITA), so that was not a problem.  If you look around and get lucky, you may find a donor truck with the heavy duty 11" brakes on the front. 

[bosworth]

thanks for your reply. i was inspired to watch e-bay for a drag link and found a new or lightly used one for $45.  

New brake question.

i am replacing the wheel cylinders on my 90 jeep cherokee rear axle; the pistions in the wheel cylinders are only 3/4 inch. The wheel cylinders on my front end are 1 3/8 inch. Can such different wheel cylinder sizes work together on the same master cylinder?  will the front brakes be applied a lot stronger than the rear?

thanks...Bill

[Dave72dt]

Yes, on a drum-drum setup, the rear brakes will commonly have a smaller  diameter cylinder.   An adjustable proportioning valve can always be added into the system if you have any problems.