Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

I am in the process of redoing the brakes on my 1937 Packard 120. Whoever did the last brake job (before my ownership) installed a 1" bore wheel cylinder on the front left side instead of the correct 1-1/16" bore. The other 3 wheel cylinders are the correct size (1-1/16" front right and 15/16" on the rears).

My question is this. What would I have noticed with the smaller wheel cylinder installed? Less braking power? Uneven braking? No difference at all?

I have ordered a correct one from Kanter. My credo is, "Never use short-cuts on the brakes. That's an area where experimentation is not a good idea."

Thanks for you help.

same hydraulic pressure over a smaller area = less force

......same hydraulic pressure over a smaller area = less force....and more or faster movement so depending on how well adjusted they were, those shoes might have contacted drums first and had more wear until the other shoes caught up to provide more braking force.

Different wheel cylinder sizes SHOULD result in some brake pull, toward the side with the larger bore. Bendix style self-energizing brakes would be more sensitive to that then "duo-servo" brakes.
Having driven several front drum equipped cars over the years, it seemed that all of them had some wander or pull under heavy/severe application.
(Then there's the lose-brake-effect-because-you-drove-through-a-puddle thing, but that's another story)