Wheel Cylinder issues

Ronnieroadster

Ronnieroadster

Well-known member
Here's the short story.
Doing some long overdue maintenance on my high milage Deuce Roadster
which includes front brakes. One of the original {USA} front wheel cylinders was leaking so I decided to replace both with new wheel cylinders. The new cylinders are now import quality so of course one of them leaked really bad during the bleeding process. Discovered the problem was the cup in the cylinder.

At this point I'm not crazy about the poor quality of this import stuff!
What I would like to do is just freshen up my original wheel cylinders. To do the rebuild I need 1-3/8 and 1 inch wheel cylinder cups. Would anyone know where I can get the cups in these sizes?
Also wondering what other have done when they needed wheel cylinders.
Ronnieroadster
 
Fifteen years ago I put some foreign repro wheel cylinders in my car and found the hole leading in from the hose was drilled off center. With the cups pushed all the way in, the fluid would bleed past the cup lip. When I reassembled after cleaning, I made sure the shoes were adjusted to close to their final place, then put the fluid to the cylinder. Solved the immediate problem by making sure you weren’t making the cups overlap the hole.

About ten years ago I wanted to put some fresh cups on my rear cylinders. I went to the parts store and what would have been available in the drawers in the old days, now required a special order. It they were still able to order them in.
 
Hey
Ronnieroadster
Did you find the "new" cups to be "shorter" in length than the good ole' USA ones??? IF so can you let us know how the NAPA ones turn out. I believe this discussion on the "new" wheel cylinders was had on a previous thread and I can't remember IF it was the cups that were different OR the hole for the fluid was in a slightly different location and this was causing cylinders to leak IF the cups got pushed back too far???
 
rockfla said:
Hey
Ronnieroadster
Did you find the "new" cups to be "shorter" in length than the good ole' USA ones??? IF so can you let us know how the NAPA ones turn out. I believe this discussion on the "new" wheel cylinders was had on a previous thread and I can't remember IF it was the cups that were different OR the hole for the fluid was in a slightly different location and this was causing cylinders to leak IF the cups got pushed back too far???
Click to expand...

Yes the new cups are shorter they measure .200 compared to the US which are .360. The tapered area of the short cup is .130 wide the US cup is .230 wide.
Another difference the shorter cups have a series of of ribs around that shorter .170 tapered area this makes the sealing surface almost non existent.
There's also another problem I'm experiencing with the wheel cylinders they do not retract correctly compared to the original US wheel cylinders. This creates a dragging brake shoe issue
I'm going to check and see what NAPA has will give an update once i have them in hand.
This year makes it 50 years I've been driving the roadster updating parts and having an issue sure sucks. I'm going to rebuild the original wheel cylinders to get things back to normal.
Thanks to everyone for your input. I'm off to NAPA
Ronnieroadster
 
Ronnie, try Foundry Street Classic Parts, formerly N.B. Pease & Co. in Palmer, Mass. 413-283-7620. The new owner, Brian Keith was formerly an employee of N.B. Pease. Brian has millions, no ********, of antique auto parts. Brian is only there on Fridays and Saturdays, but he has an answering machine for your needs. 99 % of his parts are U.S. made. most of which Nelson Pease accumulated over more than 50 years in business.
 
nickthebandit said:
Ronnie, try Foundry Street Classic Parts, formerly N.B. Pease & Co. in Palmer, Mass. 413-283-7620. The new owner, Brian Keith was formerly an employee of N.B. Pease. Brian has millions, no ********, of antique auto parts. Brian is only there on Fridays and Saturdays, but he has an answering machine for your needs. 99 % of his parts are U.S. made. most of which Nelson Pease accumulated over more than 50 years in business.
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I have fixed many of my wc by washing them in the kitchen sink with hot water and dish washer soap. Most of the time the rubber is re usable. Hot soapy water dissolves old brake fluid crud and leaves everything clean. A quick trip to the oven dries out the pores of the cast. use a knife to then scrape out any rings that are left in the cyl. The old practice was to hone cylinders when they were torn down and I believe it did more damage than good. Of course make sure the wife is not around.............
 
I bought a set of China made w/c s and found they were dry, bleed hole was in right position, and phoney cups. After cleaning w/c s and lubricating, new cups from Napa they seemed good. If you have a lathe and a press, you can sleeve one yourself.
Good luck if you get caught after an accident


Bruce
 
Update today I was able to get good USA quality cups at NAPA they had 4 of each size in stock. Thanks Uncle Buck for the part numbers. I ordered an additional box of each size to keep in stock for the future.
Ronnieroadster
 
Another solution if you are stuck using the bad (new) wheel cylinders is to mill the slot on the large piston a little deeper letting the cup move out and away from the miss-drilled hole.
 
Ronnieroadster said:
Update today I was able to get good USA quality cups at NAPA they had 4 of each size in stock. Thanks Uncle Buck for the part numbers. I ordered an additional box of each size to keep in stock for the future.
Ronnieroadster
Click to expand...

Glad I was able to help. Old parts books are irreplaceable.
 
My experience was that the mis drilled cylinders were for the rear. Front cylinders are normally ok. But I still dismantle and inspect just in case.
 
Petehoovie, thanks for the picture of the N.B. Pease & Co. main building. I have spent many an afternoon at Pease's looking and sometimes finding what I needed. when Nelson was there, you would ask him for a part, he would know if he had the part and where it was located. Nelson did all of this from memory, no computer. I hope that Brian Keith can continue to provide the same service. There are few places left that have this quantity and selection of parts available.
 
We just went through this on a friends' roadster. The hole where the fluid comes into the cylinder was drilled off center like others have said. The fluid comes in hitting the side of the rubber cup and pushes it away from the cylinder wall instead of behind it. It didn't matter who we ordered them from we got the same defective cylinders.
 
Thanks for reporting back Ronnie - I think I'm going to see if I can order some from NAPA to have around here . . as sure as Hell I'll need them someday.
 
What I’ve done is once I have everything in place and the shoes expanded to the drums is to apply air pressure into the wheel cylinder to push the piston and cups outward. This is all because the new offshore wheel cylinders aren’t made just right.
 
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