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When I recently pressure bled the brakes on my 1954 Patrician, I was surprised to find that the bleeder valves were 10mm! I seem to recall that the cylinders came from Napa so if you have very few metric tools, you might want to check that first.

Dell - Replacement wheel cylinders are cheap, so I plan on just replacing them. My master cylinder is a non-factory dual cylinder, I think from a Ford. I'm going to redo everything else and see how it works with that. If it gives me problems then I'll have to go back to a stock master cylinder setup. Ross also has mentioned that most (if not all) of the brake lines can be replaced by buying the premade lengths of tubing from NAPA, and bending them up. No flaring needed. I'll give that method a shot before I completely do my own.

BigKev - This is where things get confusing. I've seen that Clippers have different brake sizes....11" I think? But Super's have the larger 12" brakes? If that's the case then I've been looking at the wrong part numbers in the parts cross reference. I haven't pulled any of the drums off to measure what I have. My car does have the '53 gauges, so perhaps it has the '53 brakes too?

John - I've read about it and it looks good. Honestly though, this car is never going to see another winter of driving, and won't be driven in the rain unless I get caught in a freak storm. I would think the possibility of lines rusting in the future is probably very low. NAPA's premade lines are rubber-coated steel. I'm thinking those will work for what I need.

Don - No worries about the metric tools. I have a full compliment of metric tools thanks to my truck being a Toyota. I've done lots of work to it, and it's been a lot of fun. It's one of my other hobbies

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Yes, Super's reused the 3-hole dash cluster and brake parts from '53. Specials and Deluxes used the new sweeping cluster and the smaller brake drums.

Also, the wheel bolt pattern is different. That is how I got burned and found out that Supers were different.

Your car is a Chassis 5411, so this applies to you:

packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/STB/54T-1.pdf

Maybe Ross knows better, but I've never run across a Super that didnt have the '53 parts.

For a quick double check, measure between two lug bolts that are not adjacent. If that is close to 4 1/2" you have the 11 inch brakes, if it is about 5" you have the '53 style 12" brakes.

If you have the smaller brakes, then a whole world of Chrysler and Ford wheels will fit your car if need must.

Kev and Ross, thank you both. Mine measures out to over 4.8" center-center on non-adjacent lug nuts. Looks like I have the 12" brakes.

That's a bummer. RockAuto has shoes for the 11" brakes and they are dirt cheap. Nothing for the 12".

So to clarify, are the 1954 Packard (not Clipper) cars also 12"? So I could order any brake hardware, wheel bearings, and axle seals from any 1953 car (Packard and Clipper) and 1954 Packard....right? I need to be sure because I'm going to have to order all of those things... I need them to be right.

-Kevin

I found my shoes by measuring the size of the actual shoe and then finding others cars that used that size. I think shoes also fit a 70s GM Truck. I can't remember if that was front or back. Did you look in the parts x ref here to see what others used?

All the shoes I'm seeing in the parts cross reference are for '54 Clippers, and it looks like they were all put up by you. So I'm assuming all those are for the 11" brakes that the Deluxe Clippers had.

I have ZERO experience with drum brakes, so forgive my ignorance here. I'm assuming that shoes for 11" brakes will not work on 12", correct?

I may just need to remove and measure, then go from there. It's not like I'm going to be at the point of replacing shoes immediately. I have to redo the brake lines, clean and paint the backing plates and drums, new bearings and seals all the way around, etc.

-Kevin

Correct, the 11" shoes will not fit the circumference of a 12" drum.

Maybe this wagner brake shoe number might help....

packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=10548&forum=2