The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk New Wheel Cylinders Coated?

I just received four new wheel cylinders from NAPA for my '46. Thing is, they have some kind of light oily coating on the exterior surfaces of the wheel cylinder housing. Question is, do I trust that I can just go ahead and install them as they are, or should I disassemble them and clean them in a solvent to remove all traces of this oily substance? Then coat all the internal parts with brake fluid and paint the cast iron housings?

that's commonly done [after the rubbers were put on] to prevent the outside of the casting from developing surface rust sitting on the shelf, won't be any inside - I'd install as is, never had any problem

Bill

Lucille Same here.I took mine apart and cleaned with Brake Clean, then let dry and coat with brake assembly lube or brake fluid, Another thing you should look at is the thread where the adjuster bolt enters the end cap.The threads can be loose and are sometimes a poor fit. Use you're old end caps if possible. Also inspect the seal cups for very small metal flakes Gently remove by rubbing with finger nail or tooth pic. A another area to look at is the adjustment spring that is riveted or screwed on to the cylinder and keeps the adjustment buy resting in the notches on the end cap. If it is not centered or loose it will need to be corrected by replacing or screwing it on with another from old cylinder. If not centered the end cap can move out from under it and not let brake release or stay in adjustment if it is loose.
I too just got two cylinders from NAPA and needed to clean them. But they did have screwed on adjuster springs that where well centered. but the threads in the end caps where a poor fit.
If I had a lathe I would make a set with good threads and an adjuster notch that one could actually see threw the slot in the backing plate. More like the cast iron one's on the rear of my one ton.

I will add my comments too. The threads that T-Truck was talking about failed on one of my new ones. I applied a lot of force after putting the system together and bleeding it. One of the threads failed and it just yielded as it did so. Lucky for me it was a static pre-road test.

The adjuster clips on mine were not tightened up. It it get put together that way it has to be corrected. I believe the originals were riveted.