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11/07/20: My rest of my brake parts finally came in so I can finally get my truck back on her wheels. I needed to replace the wheel cylinders, brake drums, hardware and the brake lines which were original on the rear end. When I removed the rods on the wheel cylinders, rusty water came out of both sides. The pistons in the wheel cylinders I removed were rusted and I ended up tearing one of the dust seals not knowing how to remove them. The other three came out easy. After honing out the wheel cylinders, cleaning and painting, I bought a couple of rebuild kits and quickly found out that the dust seals were different. Of course the rest of the kit would work but the part I really needed wasn’t going to work. I went from a 5 dollar rebuild kit I bought a NAPA, to a $30 dollar wheel cylinder x2 and don’t forget shipping. The dust seals on the cylinders I removed, press into the ID of the cylinder. The kit contained seals that were fit into a groove on the OD of the cylinder. I looked at several other online vendors and they all seemed to sell that same kit. I ended up buying new wheel cylinders from Classic Parts which had the internal dust seal and a new spring kits from Chevs of the 40’s. Classic Parts spring kit was on backorder.

With my new parts in hand, I proceeded by installing the new wheel cylinders. When I went to install the brass tee block with its two copper gaskets the original bolt bottomed out before it made contact with the copper gaskets. The new cylinders (made in China) were not drilled deep enough. I checked the original wheel cylinder and it was almost .060” deeper. I had a decision to make to either take the wheel cylinder apart to drill and tap the hole deeper or take a bit off of the end of the bolt. That decision was easy so I ground a bit off the end of the bolt. After a few try’s, I got both tee blocks installed. Once I attached both wheel cylinders, I moved on to fabricating the two brake lines on the rear end.

I used copper nickel tubing and had previously purchased all new inverted flare tube fittings. I practiced a few double flares before I started since I haven’t flared tubing in years, never flared copper nickel and don’t own the expensive flare kit. I have an decent Imperial flare kit but still the lower end type. I tried to duplicate the existing line on the drivers side but it was too bent up to follow. I ended up just flaring the brake cylinder end, added the first 90 degree bend then bent the rest by hand. I turned out pretty good and hopefully no leaks.

I moved on to installing the new shoes. The old shoes were new looking but the drivers side was soaked with axle grease due to the axle issue I had, so I opted to replace them. The shoes went on easy and I followed the procedure in the Shop Manual to adjust the brakes, including adjusting the pivot bolt.

With the brakes installed and adjusted, I still needed to bleed the rear brakes. I have a cheap eBay vacuum bleeder that uses compressed air to create a vacuum. It was starting to get dark, but I figured I could probably get them bled. I started on the drivers side making sure I topped off the master cylinder. I was getting fluid in the vacuum bleeders tank but couldn’t see any fluid nor bubbles coming thru the line. Contributing to my decision to quit for the night, aside from it getting dark, was the fact that I had very little Dot 3 brake fluid left, so I decided to let it go till I had some daylight.

Today I bought two cans Dot 3 brake fluid, so I continued on bleeding the brakes. The vacuum bleeder still acted the same way and I still couldn’t see fluid or bubbles coming out of the bleeder. I decided to do it the old fashion way and get the help of my wife. This time I had no problem bleeding both brakes but one of the double flares ended up leaking. I tried snugging it up but ended up re-flaring the tube with success. A quick bleed on both wheels and the brakes were done.

After reinstalling the wheels, the truck can now be rolled back into the garage to reinstall the engine and transmission. Another success and one step closer to getting her back on the road! Yea!