Wheel cylinders

[Guest aunteeks]

Getting ready to fix leaky wheel cylinders on the rear wheels. Talked to the parts guy at Oreilly's and he told me each wheel has two cylinders. At 30 bucks each I want to be sure thats right. Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks John

[bach4660]

1 ton's have only one wheel cylinder

[kevinanderson]

How much of the brake parts are available over the counter for the ton and up trucks?

[Merle Coggins]

1/2 and 3/4 ton trucks have two cylinders on the rear brakes and a single twin piston cylinder up front. 1 tons use a single twin piston front and rear, according to my manual. I've forgotten which truck you have. $30 per cylinder is about right for those dual rears if that's indeed what you have.

[1949P17BC]

When I did my 48 1/2 ton the wheel cylinders have what i refer to as a step inside (two different size cylinders) Just an FYI so you don't go crazy trying to push them out the same side.

[Merle Coggins]

When I did my 48 1/2 ton the wheel cylinders have what i refer to as a step inside (two different size cylinders) Just an FYI so you don't go crazy trying to push them out the same side.

The dual piston cylinders have different sized pistons as you say. Be sure to put the larger piston to the rear.

[Guest aunteeks]

Merle, thanks for the info and pictures. I labor under the notion that if I know something then everyone knows. Truth is I just forgot to state which truck I have. I was surprised at the cost. Seems the last ones I did ran about 10-12 bucks each. I'll just bight the bullet for these. Gotta have em.

John

[Guest aunteeks]

Merle, Which book did the pictures come from? I'm trying to get the wheel cylinders loose in my B-3-C and can't figure out how they are attached. If I can find it I'll get the book and hope it shows me how.

I new the rear wheel cylinders were leaking but I still went to Cruise Night Friday. What a dumb Thing to do. The left cylinder let loose and I lost all brakes. The emergency brakeis stuck. I was lucky I didn't wreck anything or kill anyone. Going to re do the entire brake system before the truck goes out again.

Thanks John

[grey beard]

when I did my B1B brakes I shopped quite a bit before buying parts. You are right - these are quite expensive. I got wheel cylinders and master cylinder from Bernbomb and found the three flex hoses locally. NAPA sold me a 25 foot roll of steel tubing for my new lines and I flared the ends myself - no leaks to date. I also recommend you go to Pagasus.com and get their nifty little remote master cylinder reservoir to mount on the firewall, so you never have to try to fill one of these critters on the truck - nearly impossible. That's why so many master cylinders fail -they get dirt in them due to their crummy location - hard to reach from the bottom and imossible to reach from the top - unless you are seven feet tall, which I am not. What I am is fat, which does not lend itself to either fill position.

I also decided to use dot 5 fluid in my squeaky new brake system, and am glad I did. Works quite well, I might add. JMHO:)

[Merle Coggins]

John,

The pages were scanned from my Shop Manual that I purchased off of Ebay a while back.

Before I found this one I bought a manual on CD. It was scanned form an original manual, but the images were quite poor. I wasn't very happy with that purchase, but I love my real manual.

As I recall, the rear cylinders slide onto the shoe anchor pins. Disconnect the line, remove the shoes, and the cylinders should slide right off. They may be rusted tight on to the pins, but they should come off. The front cylinders are held in place with 2 bolts, as I remember it.

Good luck with your brake project. I too would suggest inspecting your brake lines. They're not that difficult to make from stock brake line from your local parts store. I got mine from Napa. I used their new teflon coated line. I had to cut and reflare a few, but I have those tools so it wasn't an issue.

Merle

[Guest aunteeks]

Thanks Merle. I plan to replace everything in the system including lines and master cylinder. Loosing the brakes in heavy traffic shook me up a little and I don't want to do it again:eek: I'll soak those WCs for a while and see if they come loose.

John

[Merle Coggins]

If everything's gonna be new, I'd take Dave's advice and ust DOT 5 fluid. I wish I had thought about that when I did mine. Too late now. DOT 5 does not play well with DOT 3 & 4. It cannot be mixed.

I believe DOT 5 is silicone based, vrs the glycol based DOT 3 & 4. I understand that DOT 5 doesn't absorb moisture like the 3 & 4 does. This will help your system live longer. It can also handle higher temperatures, but that shouldn't be a concern in your truck.

Merle

[Young Ed]

What I want to know it what happens if moisture gets into that system? Will it just sit in one spot and rust lines from the inside out? Or is it assumed that because the fluid doesn't attract moisture that none will get in???

I put 3 in a system that had 5 in it until the front to back line rotted. Not sure what happened to it since then since that car is a little too rusty to drive much.

[Merle Coggins]

Here's a link to an interesting article that I found on brake fluid. After reading it I won't worry too much about my DOT 3 fluid anymore.

http://www.afcoracing.com/tech_pages/fluid.shtml

[Merle Coggins]

Here's another one.

http://www.thebrakeman.com/fluid_tech

[Young Ed]

Thanks Merle. Looks like my questions were right on the money!

[Robert Thornton]

DODGE PU 1946 this might save you a little trouble i just finished re-doing my 52 b3b rear brakes. pay close att to pins that go in cylinders mine got croked a little and were binding on shoes an could not get drum back on took a while for me to sort it out thay have to be straight . hope this helps robert t