Posted by Matt B on Monday, October 29, 2001 at 9:01PM :
Well...the brakes leaked horribly in the 51 after I bled them out, so I called around and found rebuild kits for all the wheel cylinders and the master...local, in stock, and less than $80 for all of them. I guess that could be read as "I just bought another big project for only $79.xx".
Anyhow, I have the old spare front axle, so I figures I'll start by rebuilding those cylinders and just install them...I fear having that truck on a jack for more than a few hours at a time...
Anyhow, the first cylinder came apart fine...but what do I find? The cylinder has a different bore for each brake shoe. Well...fair enough. At least my rebuild kits seem to have appropriate seals. I suppose that means the cylinders aren't interchangeable from side to side...but it does leave a couple questions...
1) Why? I expect that the larger bore (front shoe) will cause that shoe to get pushed a little harder into the drum...and the smaller bore would cause the rear drum to move a greater distance... sort of a built in proportioning device for each shoe in each wheel. Wouldn't that cause one shoe to wear faster? Or is that what its avoiding? I've just never seen that before...Is it a common setup on trucks?
2) I've established that the cylinders aren't interchangeable side to side, but are the fronts and rears the same? Rebuild kits are teh same...but are teh castings the same? (same thing as before...put the rebuilt fronts in, then rebuild the old fronts and stick them in the back...thus, keeping the truck on all 4 wheels as often as possible)
Yet again,
Thanks!
-Matt B
51 B2 flatfender
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