Napa wants $222 for a new master cylinder...can we do better?

[47heaven]

Went to Napa today to get a new master cylinder for my P15. In their books it shows the one they sell fits 1946-54 Plymouths. The price is also $222. Is that reasonable or does anyone know where it can be purchased cheaper? I told them to hold off so that I could search around to see if that was the best price.

[Dennis Hemingway]

Kanter-$165. + $50 core charge.

http://www.kanter.com/p07-mc.html#PLYMOUTH

Roberts Motor Parts-$165.

http://www.robertsmotorparts.com/car_parts.asp?Action=search&c=Cars+%2D+Brake+Parts

Dennis:cool:

[glendale]

i get the # for you tomm. if you want i'm sure you could mail it to them.

[David Maxwell]

I got my rebuilt one for $75 online. Picked up another rebuilt one for a friend for $65 recently.

[47heaven]

I got my rebuilt one for $75 online. Picked up another rebuilt one for a friend for $65 recently.

Where, David? No secrets now. Remember we are all Plymouth brothers...LOL! Are the rebuilt ones pretty good and reliable?

[47heaven]

Kanter-$165. + $50 core charge.

http://www.kanter.com/p07-mc.html#PLYMOUTH

Roberts Motor Parts-$165.

http://www.robertsmotorparts.com/car_parts.asp?Action=search&c=Cars+%2D+Brake+Parts

Dennis:cool:

Dennis-

The Roberts one looks like a pretty good deal. What I do want to do with the new one is have the old-style filling cap bypassed by a tube that goes to the reservoir from another reservior that is mounted on the firewall . Reason being is that I want to seal the floor up completely and don't want to mess with filling the brave fluid level through the floorboard anymore. I'm into originality, but also praticality, as well.

Darin

[Guest jtw3749c]

I also found it on Andy Burnbaum for $145.00 http://www.oldmoparts.com/g.htm

[1949P17BC]

bought my parts to rebuild from Roberts, less than $30.00 EZ to do.

[bob westphal]

Darin,

My upholstery shop did something a little different when they installed the carpeting in the '47 DeSoto. They made a removable carpeted plug that covered the stock M/C access hole. It looks pretty cool! I have also installed a small reservoir on one of the cars I built. I made it out of a small metal glue can. I put a nipple in the top of the M/C cap and a bolt on tire valve fastened to the bottom of the can for a nipple and used neopreme hose between. Worked great!

[RobertKB]

You can also have your MC sleeved as there are several outfits that do that. Buy a rebuild kit and you have a cylinder better than new. I had the one sleeved for my '38 Chrysler by White Post Restorations and they did it with a brass sleeve which will not pit and that's the big advantage. It had been tanked as well and was shrink wrapped when I got it. It looked absolutely new. Total cost would be a lot less than a new one.

[marfulle]

You can buy a modern dual stage master that is a bolt up application for around $250.00. It is on my 48 and is really slick.

[Normspeed]

Darin, both of the NAPAs in our area are really unpredictable on old Plymouth stuff. They vary from unwillingness to even open up their parts books, to finding a part and then charging obscene prices. I wrote to NAPA about it and they ignored it, so they are now my last resort supplier. Jon Robinson on the DeSoto forum works at a NAPA in Victorville and he's amazed at the crummy level of service our local NAPAs are giving. He has looked up part numbers for me when the locals said they do not exist. Don't you wish you had a business so successful that you could just blow off customers who are waiting in line with their money? Hmmm, come to think about it, that's kinda what Ford and GM were doing...

[JIPJOBXX]

I bought a rebuilt master cyclinder with a stainless steel insert. No more rust out with this unit. I paid at the time I think around $100.00. Jon

[JIPJOBXX]

This is where I bought my rebuilt master cyclinder with the stainless steel sleeve. I would contact them and see what the would charged for shipping!

Present cost $125.00

http://www.hapinc.com/results.php?subcat_id=1779&subcat_id2=1779

[grey beard]

I don't know where he gets them - they come in a plastic baggie, not a box with a brand name on them - but Andy B has brand new master cylinders for $116. Just boght one two weeks ago, and it is quite nice. This was the cheapest I found, and since it's new there was no core charge involved. Usually if someoone wanta to charge for cores, you are getting reman stuff and not new stock.

JMHO

[james curl]

If you keep the old master cylinder, the end plug with the brake line fittings will fit in the filler hole. Then you could plug one hole and install a fitting in the other hole to pipe to the remote reservoir.

[De Soto Frank]

Have your old one sleeved with stainless, then throw a new kit in it.

www.brakeplace.com

They also reline anything with a friction surface (brake shoes, e-brake bands, clutches, etc).

They sleeved the MC from my '55.1 Chevy dump truck the other year ( $60 ). About 1 week turn-around.

White Post is sky-high pricey...

[James_Douglas]

I used the following folks to do a brass sleeve on my master cylinder. The work was done on time and was done very well.

http://www.brakecylinder.com/sleeve1.htm

A few people say that they like stainless as it does not ware. That is rubbish. The difference in wear between brass and stainless, for a cylinder with good fluid, would not become an issue for 50 years. Also, if anything foreign gets into a stainless cylinder it will kill it. In the brass sleeved cylinder a small particle will imbed into the brass and buy you more time.

Stainless also has a couple of issue with it that few people know or talk about. The most important is its Rockwell hardness. A shop MUST have a special hone to do stainless and almost none of them do. I have checked.

What you get at a microscopic level in a stainless sleeve are small rough peaks that will wear down the seal somewhat faster than if you use brass. You don't see people using stainless steel liners in engine cylinders for the same reason. It would trash the rings.

This opinion bucks the conventional wisdom here on the forum; however, I do have science on my side. One last thing to be aware of, there are a lot of different kinds of stainless and some will in fact corrode. If you press several shops, as I did, for the exact stainless they were using, only one could tell me and only one had a correct stainless hone. I used brass and I would suggest you consider it as well.

Best, James