Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

What you describe is the normal factory installation: The tube off of the through bolt goes to the right front wheel. The upper tube goes to the left front, and the lower tube goes to the rear.

Do yourself, your children, grandchildren and pedestrians and drivers everywhere a huge favor and replace all of the brake tubing. In the same way your master cylinder has corroded inside and needs to be replaced, your brake tubing is also corroding from the inside out. Please think about that before you make a panic stop at a crosswalk and the 700 psi surge of pressure as you stomp the pedal makes some piece of tubing act like a wet soda straw wrapper.

What Ross said! I have no idea of the total fluid volume or capacity of the brake system but unless it was nearly dry, if you have added a pint and need more then there is a leak severe enough you should be able to see some moisture or drips somewhere. If the system was nearly dry I would expect the fluid that remained in the wheel cylinders would have turned to crap by now and the wheel cylinders could be in as bad a shape as the master. Maybe worse if a piston has corroded and become a solid mass with the cylinder.

Disassembled the rear brakes and axles. Polished axle seal surfaces. Replaced inner seals, bearings, cups, outer seals and gaskets. Re-shimmed axle end-play. Extracted upper cam adjuster. Polished cam adjuster and star adjuster. Polished all components. New wheel cylinders and hardware kit. Replaced all nuts, washers and bolts. Freed-up, polished and greased hand brake cable. Performed preliminary hand brake adjustment.

Drained differential. No discernible metal. Pinion shaft seal needs replacement.

New master cylinder.

One of the former PAC presidents would polish something if it wasn't working and when that didn't help, he would call me to come over to fix it. It was always a joke between us that he tried polishing it but it didn't help.

ALWAYS polish items that move against one another and also items with seal/gasket surfaces. Other items for fun. This is correct. Apparently he wasn't polishing correctly.