Brakes, Part II: Wheel Cylinders and Lines

I had planned to do the same thing with the wheel cylinders as I was going to do with the master cylinder, viz. rebuild them. But they were in just as bad condition as the master cylinder, so it ended up that I bought new ones instead of rebuilding the old. It is not always easy finding parts for Kaisers and Frazers now, but there are a number of sources. Kaiser_Willys is a source that specializes in parts for Willys Jeeps. Kaiser-Frazer purchased Willys in 1953, and so they have many parts in common, but they are not always an exact fit. For example, the right front wheel cylinder's bolt holes were in the opposite corners on Kaisers than on Willyses, so I had to drill new holes in the backing plate for that wheel cylinder. All the rest fit perfectly with no drilling.

New wheel cylinder next to the old wheel cylinder. Notice that the old one has a chip, which in and of itself would have made it impossible to rebuild. Even without that chip, each of the old wheel cylinders were in similar condition to the master cylinder, with pits too deep to hone smooth (see previous post).

Drilling holes in the backing plate for the new right front wheel cylinder. Kaiser-Willys sent me a pattern with the new wheel cylinder which I used to mark the points for the new holes.

Here is the backing plate after two new holes were drilled. The old holes are now superfluous, but do not negatively affect the new wheel cylinder.

There was one small section of brake line near the rear left rear wheel that I accidently crimped as I was unscrewing the old fitting that hooks the brake line to the wheel cylinder. In order to make a new one I bought a length of the correct diameter line with fittings, measured the old line, cut the new one to size, bent it to the correct shaped, and flared the end so it would mate to the fitting on the wheel cylinder.

From left to right are the line-cutting tool, flaring tool, and shaping tool. At bottom are new brake lines. They come in common pre-cut sizes with fittings, so if you have a common vehicle, you would only have to shape the lines. But there was no size that fit the Kaiser, so I had to cut it to size and re-flare the (straight) end I had cut so it would seal properly.

New brake line after I had cut it.

Flaring the end of the freshly cut brake line.

Compare my flaring on the left with the flared end that came with theline on the right (it's the extra length of line I cut off to make the line the correct size).

New brake line installed on the car. Also note the new rubber brake line between the frame and suspension in the bakground. There are three of these on the car: two in front and one in the rear--I replaced all three.