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WARNING! A single flare on brake tubing is NOT a good or safe idea. While a single flare is easier to make, it does not have the strength of a double flare.

Why not use double-flared tubing available at parts stores for most of your brake lines or order a pre-formed and flared set?

You are taking a chance with your and others safety.

(o[]o)

I may have misread your last posting about single flaring the brake line. If I understand the next sentence, it would seem you fixed that mistake. Good catch!

Thanks for looking out for me JW! Yes I realized what I did and went back and corrected it. My fault for trying to rush the job.

Today I tried to adjust the brakes. The manual under major adjustment wants me to use feeler guages and adjust the anchor pin. I didn't change shoes so I'm leaving that thing alone for now. I don't want to screw it up or have it snap off. When I go for a slow drive and the brakes don't feel right I will make those adjustments. I just tightened the star adjuster until I could just move it with my hands and the backed it off until it moved freely.

So there is no fluid in the lines. I pressed the brake pedal and it will not raise back up unless I pull it up manually. Is this normal with no fluid or a sign my master cylinder is bad? I figure I will ask now in case I have to remove it.

I also tried to adjust the hand brake. Mine is not ratcheting. It just returns to the released position. Really hard to see what is going on around it. I'll have to study the diagram that was posted in a different blog.

Brake pedal sticking down is not a good sign--cylinder is probably rusty or gunked up. No use sending that out into the rest of the system. New MC are readily available from Rock, Napa, Kanter, et al.

Standard or power brakes? Pedal not returning sounds like the return spring may be broken or missing or more likely the master is totally gummed up. Same causes for both but springs are in different places. On standard, there is a long spring going toward the rear between a pin on the pedal and hooking onto the frame. On power it is a large spring inside the vacuum canister. For gumming, it would be the vacuum section more likely to be sticking in the power unit.

On the emergency brake, look right at the end of the assy just above the end of the handle shaft . As you turn the handle it lifts a pivot and forces the little U shaped piece of metal which is held up by a spring down out of the teeth to release the brake. The piece could be bent or sticking or, If the small coil spring that is right at the end of the assy holding the U shaped piece up is missing, it won't be lifted up so will not be in a position to grab the teeth and hold the brakes applied..

Thanks guys I was afraid of that. Brakes were working before I started replacing the lines. Oh yeah they are manual brakes. Glad I asked before filling it with fluid. Guess I'll be waiting for a master cylinder to arrive.

Howard, I will investigate the area you are describing. Maybe extra light will make things easier to see.

Check out my project blog from the 8th of june. I had the same problem with the parking brake. You're probably missing one of the springs on the handle mechanism above the master cyl.

Hi Charlie, go to Rockauto.com then follow the links to Packard 1952 200 and they show several generic parts available. Master cylinders range from about $44 to $80 for instance. Plus it gives you part numbers to go off of if you want to run it by your favorite NAPA or wherever counter guy instead of ordering online. another source of info.

Thanks Tobs, I knew someone was also having problems with the hand brake. I'll re-read your blog.

HA52, great suggestion on Rock Auto! I found a RAYBESTOS MC3081 listed there. I put it in Amazon and it is cheaper and I can use Prime for free 2-day shipping. Awesome!

It says it has a 1/2" output. I assume I have to take the 3 way splitter that the metal brake lines go into off the old master and put it on the new one, right?

If the new cylinder does not come with them, you may also need new copper washers or gaskets when you transfer the brass block and screw. Possibly you can get by with softening or annealing the old ones but if they are really scarred or scratched then they won't seal and can be somewhat hard to come by in our size. When I did the 47 Napa was able to match the size but locally It took more than one store to find them. Not much call for them anymore so one store showed stock but could not find the correct item. Two others only had one or the other but not both sizes in stock. O'Reilly didn't have either in stock and would have had to special order.

Oh great...that figures!