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

Hi, all -

New here, and my first adventure with a Packard. I acquired this and several other cars from a late friend's estate.

This car sat in a barn for years. We got it running good, replaced some front end parts, and will be replacing the brakes, MC, and all lines. This is a non-TV car. I'd like to upgrade to a dual master, and as this will just be a local driver-type car, I plan on keeping the drums. A search here shows some info on a disc upgrade, but that's way beyond what I need.

Is there a kit than can be used for a dual circuit drum brake car, or recommendations if not?

Also, the fuel tank is rotted badly. Is there a replacement tank available for these?

Thanks for the help!

Jer

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Kanter sells tanks. Call for pricing.

I am also curious about a dual master for my 55 Deluxe. (Same brakes as yours.)

kanter.com/p-35854-1948-54-packard-parts.html#9

I think you are going to be on your own figuring out mounting if you are converting to a dual manual master. Issue is the Packard manual master is mounted from the side by bolts going thru the casting and into the frame rail. All easily found dual masters today seem to be mounted via two holes thru ears on the end of the cylinder. In order to use that type mount in the original spot you will need to make some sort of L shaped bracket to mount to the frame which will have some thickness. In addition to the adapter bracket thickness add the mounting ears on the master and the combination will throw the center line of the pushrod way off from where it is at the pedal end attachment point. You will need to either modify the original pedal so the pushrod can be in a straight line or change pedal entirely.

Having said that there is a possibility. Another poster found that ABS power brake recently started making a new combination toe board plate and suspended pedal for adapting a modern power brake setup to replace the BTV unit. It might be possible to fabricate something along those lines and instead of a power setup use the plate to mount the dual manual master and use a suspended pedal. You would still need to have the proper pedal ratio and stroke length though. The suspended pedal in the ABS item has about a 4:1 ratio for the booster setup while the manual systems will need 6:1 or more.

Not sure Kanter still sells the fuel tanks. Last I heard they had sold out their stock and were not getting more. If that is the case others have bought new repro 51-56 gas tanks from Auto City Classics. Several on the forum are using them.

G'day Jer,

to PackrdInfo.

And for including your '51 200 Deluxe Touring Sedan Packard in PackardInfo's Packard Vehicle Registry.

Auto City Classics has tanks. Price has gone up some. We just did one on my brother-in-laws car. New tank and new sender plus shipping was $600. Money well spent, since he will never need to worry about the fuel tank again.

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Packard’s power brakes did not arrive until the 1952 models but the dealers often installed them on 1951s if the customer wanted then. As I recall, there was even a kit for the purpose. The TreadleVac was not a dual master but are still excellent and will stop the car on a dime making them by far the easiest installation of power brakes that you could do. Anything else is total overkill.

That said, I was reading recently of a modern master replacement that was designed and engineered to mount on the end of the TreadleVac vacuum unit and it does have dual masters but I don’t recall where I saw it.

Incidentally, someone on eBay is still selling the 1952-1956 tanks which are the same as yours except that they do not have the fill whistle.

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I rebuilt my TreadleVac on my 53 Cavalier last summer, it has good drums and shoes and stopping is not a problem. I get the safety factor in having a dual master, but I'm not a big fan of modifying the brake system. I'll go with what Packard engineers designed. Additionally I like keep my car as original as possible.

If you replace all of your brake tubing and install new hoses and cylinders, the risk of instantaneous brake failure is small to the point of nearly vanishing. That is unless you plan to run the car in the salt.

In 52 years of screwing around with old cars the only instantaneous failures I have seen were due to corroded brake lines. Sure I have seen diminished performance for a host of reasons--all due to lack of maintenance and wishful thinking, but instantaneous failure was always from corroded lines.

I have seen poorly engineered dual cylinder retrofits where the pedal stroke was not sufficient to operate the second half of the dual cylinder if one half failed. The very picture of a fool's paradise.

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This is my thinking as well, and if Ross says so then that's good enough for me! And there is always your hand brake in the unlikely event your hydraulic system fails completely. Won't stop you on a dime, but it will stop you..............if it's adjusted correctly and working!

Yeah, I'm not terribly concerned, but if there was a pretty much drop in dual cylinder upgrade I would have been interested.

On my Clipper I'm basically planning to replace the entire brake system aside from the distro blocks and brake light sender (if it works) so no real concern. Speaking of which, does anyone know if this is a drop in replacement for the master cylinder? It's listed on the parts cross reference but IDK how similar it is.amazon.com/Raybestos-MC3081-Professional-Master-Cylinder/dp/B001ANE7BY

Looks pretty darn similar.