'56 Brake Questions

[alacaria@xxxxxxxxx]

I do not know how your cover would make the difference. Also you cannot get 
the rear drums off. It takes a special drum puller. Make sure they put 
brake fluid in it. Had a traveler from Germany who purchased a 59 the 
previous owner rebuilt the brake system and put in hydraulic fluid. Had to 
have it flushed out. Also check the bleeding of your system. Now here is 
the problem; You have two wheel cylinders on each of the front wheels. They 
are a pain to bleed. Sometimes you have to take the backing plate loose and 
rotate and tilt to get the air out. The best thing is to see if there is a 
local older shop around that know something about the brakes. Basically 
look for someone in their late 60's or 70's that is a car nut.

Anthony

At 11:12 PM 10/30/03 -0500, you wrote:
>Over the last week or so, I've posted a couple of times with some questions
>on the brakes on my '56 Sedan.  Performance has been good almost all the time
>but usually the third or fourth time the brakes are used after the car is
>started, the peddle goes soft and to the floor.  A minute later they 
>return to
>normal and seem to remain fine until after the car is restarted.  Today I 
>had a
>chance to look over the system closely and wanted to report on what I've 
>found
>and ask a few questions.
>
>Up front, I had little difficulty removing both drums to inspect the shoes,
>wheel cylinders, and springs.  It would appear that everything, including the
>drums, are relatively new; probably having been done in 1998 when the PO 
>first
>got the car and had a lot of work done.  I was happy to see new flexible
>lines, new wheel cylinders, and completely new shoes (not just resurfaced).
>
>In the rear, I was not able to get either drum off as the wheel nuts were
>tighter than I wanted to deal with in the dwindling daylight.  I did notice,
>however, that once again the flexible lines had been replaced along with the
>bleeder fittings which leads me to believe that the wheel cylinders are 
>also new.
>The drums appear to be in okay condition from the outside (not that that 
>means
>much) but are also different which has me puzzled.  Also different from side
>to side in the rear are the wheel nuts - one is 1 1/4" the other is 
>probably 1
>1/8".  I have to guess that this is NOT correct although it may not matter.
>
>Inspection of the master cylinder revealed no signs of recent repair,
>reconditioning, or other work which leads me to believe that this is the 
>culprit.
>Anyone have suggestions on a source for remanufactured master cylinders (or
>rebuild kits although this is one job I'd rather pay a professional to do)?
>
>One last question - I rechecked the fluid level this afternoon just to make
>sure there wasn't any major leakage - there wasn't.  When I put the cover 
>back
>on I realized some time later that I forgot to tighten the cover bolt beyond
>finger tight.  I also noticed little if any problem  with the brakes when
>testing the car afterwards.  Is it possible that I overtightened the cover 
>bolt the
>first time I opened it up to add fluid?  Could this have caused my problems?
>
>Thanks
>Jeff Cantor
>with a '56 Sedan in Trenton, NJ
>
>