Nate,

Any leak in a brake system is just plain unaceptable. It's an accident waiting to happen. Besides just being rediculously dangerous you'll never sort your brakes out untill you fix the leak.

I,ve never put a bronco master in a 55 but it sounds like your push rod is too short. If you put a washer in between the cup of the master and the ball of the push rod you've done the wrong thing. the ball and socket need to go together. look for a longer push rod or better still an adjustable one.

Stop trying to take short cuts you need to be trying to do your best with every thing you do to the car. Things like brakes are safety items and you are not just endangering yourself but others. If it seems that you are doing something half arsed then stop and think. Ask before you tear off and do something stupid. It worrys me that some of these half arsed fixes are not being mentioned they only get aired once there is a further problem. How many more are there.

Warren

Grizzly (Aussie Mainline)

Easy Grizz he's learning as he goes and totaly open to advice. Sounds like the guy has no help available where he lives so he came to us. Good solid advice and suggestions but I'm not sure if the extra "emphasis" was necessary. Lets help this guy get on the road safely.

That said, no leaks in the brake system are acceptable except the seepage around the cap. Fix the leak then try to bleed again. Doe's the break pedal have play at the top of its stroke? Make sure you have the right length rod. Chuck

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

Grizzly,

I appreciate your concern and safety always is number one, which is why I took this opportunity to upgrade to a dual master (68 bronco) so the two brake circuits are isolated and a leak in one ciruict wouldn't compromise the entire brake system.

I hope I didn't give the wrong impression, The leak just occurred today where I joined the new line to the existing rear, so this isn't something I've been hiding until now.  I haven't driven the car in this condition and I didn't intend to imply that a leaky line was an acceptable fix for any brake system.  The nut in the cup on the master cylinder was something I got off of this site.  http://www.y-blocksforever.com/forums/Topic30474-9-1.aspx

I'm definitly not trying to do anything half-arsed or dangerous.  I hope I haven't created the impression I don't take things seriously because that would probably lead to people not wanting to help me, and I really rely on all of you and enjoy the sense of coummunity.  Sometimes when I post things I'm just sharing on the forum becuase I want to share with others who care about cars, at home the only person I have to talk with is my wife and she has about a 45 second attention span when it comes to be talking about my car problems.

I fully intend to repair the leak before I go any further, but what has me confused is that the small leak that I see seems to be too small to account for the fluid that would normally be displaced with a full stroke of the brake pedal, which is what I'm able to do right now, so where is that fluid going?  I had good flow at all four wheels while bleeding the brakes and no air bubbles.  Is it possible that there is still air somewhere in the line even when no bubbles appear when bleeding?

Nate - Madison, Wisconsin

 

56 Ford Customline Sedan

 

Did you bench bleed the MC before installing it? If not that could be your problem. Also make sure all 4 brakes are adjusted. I understand the puzzlement about the split chamber MC but can't diagnose it from here. First thought is remove and bench bleed the MC and go from there.Chuck

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

Thanks Chuck I think that is a good idea, I'm going to start back at the beggining and bleed the MC again (after I fex the leak in the rear line).  This MC came with bleding "plugs" instead of the dual hose bleeding kit I've seen before.  The instructions say to screw these plastic plugs into the ports on the MC and then slowly stroke the master cylinder .75-1" max, until you have a firm pedal.  Apparently the MC pushing aginst these plugs pushes the air back up into the bowls. 

When I converted my 71 to front power discs, the MC came with two little hoses and some nozzles that fit snuggly into the ports, and you just cycled fluid out the ports and back into the bowls.  That systems seemed more intuitive than this bleeder "plug" system that came with the 68 bronco mc.  But I was able to get a very firm pedal with the plastic plugs in the outlet ports, so this new method seemed to be working.

Has anyone else used the plug-style MC bleeding before with sucess?

Nate - Madison, Wisconsin

 

56 Ford Customline Sedan

 

Nate, I,ve lost track of initial installation but is new M/Cyl bolted to front of inline booster? if so it is important as pointed out to (1) bench bleed M/Cyl on bench, old hands just use finger tips to lightly block holes allowing piston movement to push fluid and air out while quickly pushing fingers tighter over hole once done, VERY Important to avoid brake fluid in eyes or over car nearby, but works! (2) if bolted to a inline brake booster then adjust the little domed tip of booster pushrod to only slightly start pushing on back of M/C piston, not the pedal pushrod. If this IS your setup? follow these suggestions slowly step at a time and then give car light rebleed, plus readjust your shoes till they grab drum and back off only till the drum is free. This is usual timeproved method in my lifetime. good luck. regards bill.

 

yyy

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

Thanks Bill, I do not have a booster (if you mean power brakes?) the push rod from the brake pedal is going straight into the cup on the master.  The pushrod that came with the m.c. was 4 inches too long.  The original pushrod did not have a ball on it, it only had what looked like a few threads (??) I looked inside my original m.c. to see if there appeared to be another piece that had come off in the cup, but didn't see anything.  Is the original pushrod end supposed to be like that?

Even after my drums were turned my drums don't "spin" freely when I put them on even before I tighten the spindle nut.  They move pretty easily, but they definitly don't "spin".  So the idea of expanding the adjuster until I feel "drag" and then backing of a few notches doesn't seem to work for me becuase the drag is there from the get go?

Nate - Madison, Wisconsin

 

56 Ford Customline Sedan

 

Thought I'd throw some pics up of my work so far.

Here I was pretty happy with how my tube bending for the one line that goes under the front cross member ended up lining up with in the correct location!

Nate - Madison, Wisconsin

 

56 Ford Customline Sedan

 

Nate, OK, so no booster, recheck your shoes it looks like you have both short leading shoes on that side, i.e short shoe to front of car, long shoe to rear. refit drums, lightly tighten bearing nut while spinning drum till finger tite, readjust shoes and then recheck pedal feel, you must have a little bit of freeplay between the m/cl piston and the pedal rod.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

Thansk Bill!  I was hoping you guys might catch something from the photos.  It is funny, I when I was going through the hassle of finding the right brake shoes, the original set I had been given (wrong ones) I thought one shoe was had more material than the other.  So when I went back to the parts store to get the correct shoes, I asked the person running the register at the parts store which way they go and he didn't know.  So I turned around to the other people standing in line and asked out-loud if anyone knew which one went forward.  Everyone kind of looked at eachother puzzled and finally one guy piped up in the at the next register "The shoe with more material goes foward, cuz that is where all the braking occurs".  Everyone else nodded.  However nobody seemed that confident, I don't think they had any more experience with drum brakes than I did, I think they guy was just guessing.

However, when I got back to the garage, and I took out the new shoes, it appeared the shoes were all the same. I thought maybe I had been holding one shoe upside down or something before and that is why it looked like there were two different shoes.  So I didn't think anything more of it.

I'll get those straightened out, maybe that will loosen up the fit a little too so I have more room to adjust the brakes properly.

Maybe when I re-bleed the MC I'll take that nut out of there to be sure the master cylinder has toom to completely re-turn to zero position.  I'm pretty sure it does but I'm not positive, so it would be good to eliminate that variable.

Nate - Madison, Wisconsin

 

56 Ford Customline Sedan