Hi 235Kidd,
$288 sounds very reasonable. As I recall, mine was well over $400 several years ago - maybe because it was a higher capacity unit to accommodate six wheel cylinders - not sure...(Or maybe my NAPA guy did not give me as good of deal as he said he was )
Yes. If the fluid is dirty, definitely time to flush. I have never lived in a dry climate, but up here in MI, humidity is fairly high most of the year. As Mike B mentioned, brake fluid absorbs a lot of water. All of my wheel cylinders along with the master were pitted, and had to be sleeved. I also replaced all of the lines, mainly because someone had replaced them previously, and used the "closest distance between point A and point B routing strategy" when running the lines, regardless of proper routing and mounting practice. There were nearly as many kinks as there were bends.
Since I never wanted to do it again, I used all stainless steel tubing. I routed it in the factory configuration following the witness marks on the frame.
The Huck design, such as on my truck, features a set of metal caps that fit over the ends of each wheel cylinder. There are two caps per cylinder - one for each shoe. During braking, the wheel cylinder pistons push on these caps.
In each cap, there is a threaded hole that runs down the center axis of the cap, in line with the centerline of the piston. In each hole is a corresponding threaded rod that engages the brake shoe. For adjustment, the cap is turned, changing the relative position of the rod to the cap. The cap has a series of grooves or notches around it's outer circumference. These grooves or notches engage a disc on the backing plate which is attached to a shaft that goes through the backing plate to outside world, and has a hex shape on it that can be turned by a wrench. There are two of these shafts, one for each cap/shoe combination that can be adjusted to compensate for wear.
The bottoms of the shoes are connected to a center pivot point via articulated links.
I don't have any pics handy that I can share, but if you look at page 338 and 339 of the manual on this site, it shows a pretty good image of them:
https://radionerds.com/images/8/8a/TM-9-801_GMC-CCKW-352-353.pdf.Is this the design on your truck ?
Hi Brad Allen,
Those slides on Hydrovac repair are awesome!! Some of the best information that I have seen.
Hi 78buckshot,
You must be near the Chrysler Proving Ground, then. I'm a ways east of you. North of Mount Clemens.
Best Regards.....
