Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

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Lots of car collectors have their old pitted master/wheel cylinders sleeved. Once sleeved in brass you don't have to worry about pitting again. The cost is higher for a quality sleeve job than a new cylinder but not a lot higher.

You can also get them sleeved in stainless steel but that's very expensive compared with brass.

Bottom line: A new cylinder (fresh off the boat from China?), cheaper and easier... yes, better... maybe not.

Just returned from Cruisin the Coast and guess what, met another Packard owner who has experienced total brake failure with no prior warning from the system. His vehicle is a 1956 Executive 4 door with 35,000 miles on it.

Bill

Good point JD about the China-Rican made wheel cylinders altho i have not ran into that. Altho re-pop parts market is changing so rapidly that it is becommiong nearly impossible to keep up with.

Nonetheless, the China-rican parts aftermarket is not limited to antique cars either. It now covers nearly EVERYTHING.

Rowdy. Did u tell him to join in with the fun here at P'info.com????? We would like hear his full story.

G'day Mates,

All constructive advice is much appreciated and I'll certainly investigate whether something is blocked. By the way, over here when overhauling wheel cylinders it's common practice to re-bore the cylinders and fit stainless steel liners into the bores, and that is equally commonly known as "re-sleeving". I don't think playing semantics with words is really constructive advice. Also the comment about no external adjustment for brake boosters was simply a statement of fact by Karps. That is, the unit needs to be removed and disassembled before any adjustments can be made. Thanks once again, John

JP -

Sounds suspicious that the boost is as insufficient with a recently rebuilt unit as the 27 year old one that it replaced.

Although you found sufficient vacuum, you didn't say where you picked up that reading. The vacuum source for the power brake unit is at the rear of the 4-bbl. carb. However, it is not merely a fitting, but a check valve, and at this ripe,old age, it is entirely possible that the rubber valve has degraded.

You also need to inspect several feet of vacuum hose in the circuit, and there's a stamped steel vacuum reservoir mounted on the rear of the left front fender splasher that could have developed a leak.

Last, but not least, there is a special hose inside the vacuum shell that runs from the tube fitting on the shell to the power piston plate. I once lost power assist for the brakes in one of my Patricians, yet had good vacuum. After eliminating everything else, I removed the vacuum cylinder end plate, which can be done in-car if you're patient. Turns out that the hose had been improperly replaced with fuel hose, which had slipped off the tube fitting - though cinched with a twist of mechanic's wire at each end. Luckily, I had a good hose salvaged from a parts car, installed it (with NO clamps), and never had a another problem with the power assist.

Hope this helps.

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Gee thanks, Craig, it's always nice to be singled out as an example or an unread, semi-informed type of person.

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Because of your comments on this BTV thread, my statement is WRT to the BTV issue and your postings thereto. No disrespect meant and if you are now better informed, good for you.

Craig

Craig:

So far, this seems to be the best-informed, best-read statement I've seen on this thread regarding the possible variations on the Bendix T-V setups installed on other cars:

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Please recall, I did offer to do some research on this, if nobody else had the information at hand.

But if the consensus is that this information is useless or will be summarily discounted due to its source, by all means let me know so I won't waste time with it.

I'd be kind of curious as to how many. There are probably no records available for Packard but assuming some other mfgs were pushing convenience items, would expect more than 25%. The 50's were the era of the gadget and flashy cars, after all.