thanks for the tip on the vent and the hose, I shall check them on stripdown..

On top of the vacuum booster there is a VENT with some felt like packing in it as a filter. If the vent becomes plugged then the pedal will not release because the vacuum piston can not return. Also, INSIDEof the booster is a vacuum hose. If it gets kinked or is not installed right then that could cause the problem too.

Sorry, I was not clear in that I only have to bleed any one of the four wheel cylinders to relieve the pressure. I inserted a tell-tale light under the dash which glows whenever I pressurise the brake system. It normally goes out immediately I release the brake pedal, but lately it has remained on after about 5-10 applications, this is accompanied by a loss of pedal travel as the system does not release. The brakes do not release themselves within a half-hour (the longest that I have left the pressurised situation). It also makes no difference if the vacuum system is operating or not. I am very interested to find out the cause. I have lots of spares so I shall start the replacement program as soon as I get some time.

Wonder if anyone here will be attending the Florida Packard Club meet in Sarasota on November the 11th

I will be down there visiting my stepfather and will be stopping by the meet.

"Because it occurs at all wheel cylinders I have determined that it is in the Boost Cylinder. I shall remove it and replace the residual check valve with a NOS ..."

I assume that means that u have to pop ALL FOUR wheel cylinder bleeders to geta release????? If so then u must have BRAKE HOSE problems. With good hoses then popping ANY ONE, EXACTLY ONE, and ONLY ONE bleeder should release ALL of the rest of the cylinders.

I don't care if the hoses are new. Either the hoses are bad or the brakes lines are plugged up. Problem, as u describe is NOT in the master cylinder not the power booster.

Ahem! Well it has developed into a case that the system blocks up with pressure after about 5 - 10 brake appliations, then you have to hydraulically release one of the wheel cylinders. It came to a head (literally) when we were returning on a 200 mile trip, towing about 750kg of motorbikes. Because it occurs at all wheel cylinders I have determined that it is in the Boost Cylinder. I shall remove it and replace the residual check valve with a NOS item and advise if it cures the problem. I shall also comment on any swelling of the parts as I still do not blame silicone brake fluids at this stage. I agree with previous comments that it is unlikely to be the compensating port. best regards Peter toet

Well I made the trip to Napa today, and bought the pieces I needed to rebuilt the front brakes.

The existing shoes still had alot of meat on them, so I couldn't bring myself to order new ones, so I am just going to reuse them after a little cleanup (see pic).

Napa had the wheel cylinders in stock for about $11 bucks a piece. I also had to buy new seals as the existing ones were shot. I found out that for some reason the '54 uses a different seal than the '53 or the '55's. The seal in the '54 is National 6456 (Napa NOS17131 $14.99), I belive the 53 or 55 seal is National 5975. I confirmed the one year status looking at the Max Merrit website. They list a different part number for '54. The '54 seal is actually cheaper in price than the pre 53, 55 seals. Weird.

The seals were not in stock and had to be ordered, but they will have them by tomorrow midday. My Napa store is able to get just about anything in about 24hrs.

They also had the rear wheel cylinders in stock, but I will wait on those until I get the fronts all done.

I bought a new hardware set (springs and hold down hardware) and new adjusters a few months ago off of ebay, so I didnt need those from Napa.

I went to use my AAA card to get the 7% discount that Napa gives card holders, when the clerk sad he would give me a better discount, and he knocked %20 of the of the total bill. Must have been my lucky day.

So the plan is to pull the backing plates off, derust them, and paint them. I will also clean up the existing shoes to remove the surface that is on them. I will clean the drums up, and them take them to Kragen and have them turned, and then hit the outside with a little high temp paint to keep the rust off of them.

While the backing plates are off I will finish the degunking of the steering knuckles, and try to clean up the rest of the front suspension. Currently the front suspension and steering is nice and tight with no slop in it at all. So hopefully rebuilding it can wait until later. I will take the time to paint all of the suspension pieces when I paint front frame clip.

Once all of that is done, then I will reassemble the brakes. All of the brake lines need to be replaced as the fluid that was in turned to solid rust many years ago. I already have the new lines, I just need to install them. But I will wait until the frame is cleaned up and painted. So that will be one of the last things on my list.

I just want to get the brake mechanicals all taken care of, and then get the car back to a rolling status as soon as possible. I may need to move the car around to finish the garage renovation, and having it on jacking stands with the spindles showing really doesnt allow me to move it.

I still need to do a little more derusting on front frame clip, then it can get painted. I also need to clean up the firewall so I can shoot it with some Metallic Bikini Blue rattle can paint from Tower paint. I hopefully can get all this done by Thanksgiving.



All parts numbers have been added to the Cross-Reference to help the next guy out.

Attach file:

---

  (35.19 KB)

Thanks, Terrill advertises in the PAC news letter for years and their prices are about as low as I can find so maybe they are the people to go with, Thanks.

Can't tell you where they came from but in the past I've bought sets for various years from Terrill Machine. The engine rebuilder didn't squawk when I gave them to him like he did for some items so they must have been decent. No longer own the cars but at least 2 are still in area and as far as I know, no problems.

"Owen" I haven't got as far as checking the journals for scuffing, taper or clearances yet but that wasn't the question. I see that there are several suppliers; Kanter, Merritt and others, even an E-Bay store but the prices vary by as much as $100 a set. If the bearings have not been made in the US or Canada in some time by big major bearing makers the suppliers are using either NOS or the ones made from offshore (China?). I just thought I would throw the question out and see what experiences others had buying bearings from the known suppliers.