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

I ordered and received a deluxe brake overhaul kit from Kanter for my 1937 138CD limo.

For the wheel cylinders, I received two (2) WC4803 and two (2) WC4804.

Looking these up, I see that both models are 1 in bore, which is correct for my car. (the 138CD is different than the 120C which uses 1-1/16in in the front and 15/16 in in the rear).

But, what is the difference between the two cylinder model numbers. Which is for the front and which is for the rear?

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A little more digging....

It appears the WC4803 is for the left and WC4804 is for the right.

Can anyone confirm this of my peace of mind. I'm wanting to get started on the installation, but want to make sure I have the right cylinders and install them in the correct location.

It's common for parts numbered that way to be left and right hand pieces, with the higher number being the right hand part.

Some cylinders have 2 different bore sizes, and in other cases, the angle of the hose connection or bleeder may be the difference.


Some cars have different cylinders for the front and rear. I don't know if that applies to your car.

I would retain and label all the old parts, since they may be better than the new ones.

Yeah…I just wasn’t originally thinking about left and right being different. It looks like the only difference is the angle of the line entry.

Thanks for the help!

Did your kit or specifically the master come with new copper washers? A lack of new washers being included was one of the annoyances I had with a Kanter kit some 10 years ago. The reason given at that time was because they were not included with the original parts they were not part of a kit and needed to be ordered separately. The old ones were expected to be reused.

There was a lively discussion then about a complete kit being advertised means just that -- complete -- and to not include them was disappointing. I had heard they were being included now and was curious. After the discussion, they did offer to send some free to anyone asking.

Some wheel cylinders use the washers but finding the two somewhat odd sizes locally that are needed in the brass block connection to the master was not easy. It came down to finding something that worked or waiting another week or so.

The kit did come with the copper washers. Two with the master cylinder and one with each of the wheel cylinders.

The only glitch I had was hard kit had a duplicate bottom spring for each wheel and was missing a smaller spring. For me that wasn’t a big deal, I just re-used the one spring in each wheel. In my case, everything was a mere 20 years old and had almost no use.

Compare the hold down pins to the old ones. They sent me pins that were way too long. So I had to get pins fron my local Napa that matched the old ones. The pins have a number stamped on the head. You want to use the same length as original. Hopefully they corrected that in their kits now.

IMy hold-down springs and pins match my originals.

It sounds like they fixed some of the problems of the past.

That said, my kit was not 100% correct, but not a big deal. I will be calling them on Monday, though, just to let them know as it may help the next person.

Here is a picture that shows which spring was duplicated and what was missing. This was the case for all four wheels.

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Just a note, the centre hub area should have the bolt heads on the outboard side of the backer plate with the nuts to the inside after they pass through the axle pivot casting. The nuts are castle ones to take a cotter pin in them to keep them from ever moving. I would think regular nut/bolt can be used with the aid of a thread locker such as loktite.
Bob J.

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Okay…I figured out the problem….

For my car, there are four different model numbers for the wheel cylinder. Each wheel is different.

First, you have left and right to account for the line entry angle.

Then, the front use 7/16-20 threads for the line entry for the rubber hose lines.

The rear uses 7/16-24 for the hard lines.

Kanter didn’t account for this, so I have the wrong wheel cylinders for the rear. I either need to get the correct wheel cylinders or find 7/16-20 to 7/16-24 adapters.