The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Brake cylinder sleeving: suggestions?

Has anyone had experiences ,good or bad, having wheel & master cylinders sleeved lately?

I'm considering having the master cylinder sleeved and am wondering who does this "reasonably".

Thanks!

Are you trying to stay bone stock? Otherwise I respectfully suggest an upgrade to a dual master cylinder using a bracket adapter and the stock pedal. The numbers pencil out versus sleeving the old "one shot" master and the extra safety factor is well worth the investment. There are a lot of threads that cover this ground. Just my two cents after spending a lot of time honing old masters and trying to save dimes. There is nothing worse than that feeling when the pedal goes to the floor and the rear bumper of the lexus in front gets real close...

Sleeving is a good answer to fixing really rare brake parts that are not avaliable anywhere anymore. There are more than enough good repo. brake parts out there for the old GM trucks.I would stick with the stuff thats still avaliable unless you are restoring a rare Corvette with impossible to replace brake parts.
I would rather install a new master cyl. from Napa in one of my old trucks. Even if ya did find a N.O.S. one I would think the rubber parts would be history after sitting on the shelf for 50 years. I dont mess around when it comes to brake parts. The new master cyl. costs $100,& thats cheap insurance.

Frank , I have sleeved both master cylinder and wheel cylinders on several vehicles , including my pickup and the bus .
The industry used to use brass to sleeve the cylinder , but generally have now changed to using stainless as a sleeve material .
Never have I had any problems .
At the time each of these jobs were done , the reason for sleeving was different , ,considerations were both economic and parts availability.
Consider the stainless sleeve as being a non corrodable material , if you are going to have the vehicle parked up for extended periods of time , this feature may be beneficial .
I would expect your local brake shop to be able to advise you as to where to send the cyl for machining etc . They may do the whole deal for you.

Thanks guys!

Splash-oil, thanks for your suggestion on the master cyl upgrade; the only complication in this case is that my truck (1 1/2ton dump) has a Hydro-Vac brake booster, "in series" between the MC and the rest of the system, and I don't think you can just stick a dualie MC on there; but I've been there with the "sinking brake pedal" and the "high-end car" getting uncomfortably close!

Yeah, I'm trying to keep the budget as low as possible on this project; right now I can get a new Raybestos MC for $118; last time I checked, I could get a cyl sleeved for $60, plus $15 for a kit; so I was thinking that the couple of bucks I could save on the MC could be appplied to having the Hydro-Vac re-built!

We'll se how it works out; thanks again for the input!

w

Frank, I just had the master cylinder sleeved in my 51 by Apple Hydraulics in New York. Was very impressed. Came back cleaned and painted and the sleeve looked beautiful. Cost 65 bucks plus a few bucks for shipping.

Frank: The ECI hot rod brakes folks show a dual remote booster in their catalog that looks like a real good candidate for replacing the stock hydravac unit which would only boost one side of a split system. This is something I have on the back burner for my '48 2-ton GMC. My plan was to replace my single shot master with a dually and then go to a dually booster. The master now on the truck would be a good candidate for sleeving it's been honed to the limit!!!

White Post Restorations has adds in all the truck mags and Hemmings. NOT cheap! More like $100 for masters as big trucks have bigger bores, costs more. I have asked on doing some wheel cylinders and was almost same as new ones WHEN I could find them. Around $70 to $80 for big ones in 2-tons and you need TWO for each side! There is another company I see advertising with stainless now cheaper than White Post, maybe that's the one in earlier post here. I always wondered where they get the tubing to put in and HOW the make those tiny "pin=holes" in them for the fluid returns and bleeders and such. Think any machine shop could bore if they had the "sleeve" to fit and ream them to size for you, don't know about the small holes. Must be some trick to doing those. Very long, very tiny bits to reach down thru cap on resivoir??