The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts No Brakes, No Fun

Welp, this is a roller coaster. When I first bought my '59 c60 truck, I was told the brakes didn't work. After putting in some fluid, and bleeding, the brakes were able to lock when empty. The problem was, I had one and a half inch throw on the pedal between nothing and lockup. That was then.

A couple weeks ago, I took a long range haul to the landfill. Upon the final turn in to the site, my brakes seized on the rear passenger, and I had to drop 2 gears and floor it to get out of the way. After 15 minutes of smoking,(they got so hot the back plate flash steamed) They released enough to unload, and limp home without brakes. This is now.

The exact opposite was true. The brakes only started working on the last inch of pedal throw. I tried bleeding, which resulted in fluid oozing out, and now the brakes are nonresponsive - they go straight to the floor. I do not know if the hydrovac ever worked(doubt it) or how to go about troubleshooting this.

Any advice?

Original problem and likely present issue could be brakes badly out of adjustment. Sometimes backing up a few feet will let them unlock, though that is not a solution.
Sounds like your past due for pulling the drums off, checking everything out in there and perhaps replacing and rebuilding it all. At a minimum you need shoes with good dry lining and plenty of it, no broken or missing parts, and wheel cylinders with fresh cups and no internal rust pitting, new ones might be easier or even required.

Also the steel and rubber lines should be in good shape.

Well, the shoes on the drivers side are near pristine, thick and even across. The passenger is pretty worn, about 1/8-3/16" from the rivets, and the ends taper. I have no idea on the cups, but the boots are a little deformed(lopsided). I greased the anchor points to allow ease of return, but I'm more concerned with the fact my brakes completely failed AFTER I pulled the drums and reassembled them.

All of the brake lines are scheduled for replacement:stainless and new rubber. But they are currently solid.
Also, if anyone has a source for a 6 lug GM rear axle brake system, I'll need to consider new parts.

Here's an easy way to test the Hydrovac...

On your first engine start of the day step on the brake pedal with medium foot pressure, then start the engine, the pedal should fade away towards the floor as the engine builds vacuum, if it does than it's working.

Rubber and steel brake lines fail from the inside out. If they look like factory lines you are WAY overdue for replacements.

Mike B

Yeah, the hydrovac is not working. Would backpressure on the master cylinder pop the hydrovac to a new position? I know the brakes need adjusted, but it seems a pretty drastic change in pedal behavior to simply be a take up issue. Maybe my hydro was seized, and now it is broken loose? How can I bleed it?

Hy Casey_58, you will need to do a complete tear down of the brakes and inspect everything. Possibly a wheel cylinder piston was seized and finally broke loose when you were driving the truck. I would not take a truck new to me out on the road when I had been told by the person I just purchased it from that the brakes did not work, I would do a complete inspection of all the braking components and rebuild as necessary before taking it out on the road. Your safety and the safety of those around you is dependent on your braking system functioning correctly. We have had quite a few trucks lately which employ the same braking system as your truck if you check for other posts on braking systems you will find the part numbers of most if not all the components you may require, hope that helps.

Dang. That sounds intensive. And expensive. Ah well, now is the time for it, while I have the engine pulled out and overhauled. Hope I can afford it.

a hydrovac for that truck is about $300 from orieley with a core. all wheel cylinders are available too just make sure the inlet thread sizes are correct. i got some that were a different thread pitch and screwed up the fitting.

Gene are you saying one can buy wheel cylinders for a 58-59 Viking two ton with hydro vac and dual rear wheel. Cylinders at ORielys? Do you have the part numbers for wheel cylinders because at my local ORielys they said they only have them in their network of stores for 1/2 tons and 3/4 tons Chevy trucks of that age. Thanks for any suggestions

txpete, i bought the hydrovac at orielys, part#51-8056. rock auto has it, part# A-1 CARDONE 518056. napa has it listed as NBB 518056. as for the wheel cylinders i will have to look at my receipts but they were all purchased at rock auto. i searched every year that had large trucks listed. napa online was the best to find part numbers to cross on other websites. seems like maybe a 1980 c70 may have been the truck i found them. like i said before though some of the flare fittings may need to be changed to a finer thread pitch.

i will say that i have a 59 spartan 80. i cannot be certain these parts are the same for a viking 60. there are photos of all of these parts so you can see if they are the same before buying. hope this helps.

i have learned to never ask the person behind the counter if they have a part for a 1959 chevy 2.5 ton truck. they instantly say no. you have to go in with a part number for them to cross. they will ask what it is for i just kind of beat around the bush until they start pecking on their keyboard. the one exception is the 70 year old napa store near me that has old guys working who have ancient books that are as long as the counter. they can usually get me a part number. usually obsolete but its a start.

Thanks Gene I'm fixing to get off into my own brake issues I'll check with rock auto