Some of you my remember a while ago I posted regarding the discolouration of my brake fluid. I checked again now a few months down the track from when I flushed and with very little use the rear brake fluid has gone brown again..? the fluid is normally green and you can see into it, nice and clean, the front reservoir is fine..

Im really scratching my head over this one. Its an old Irish Dave setup with the booster and the Corvette 1" dual master my brakes are crap !!! Cant blame that setup just yet as I remember even before that went on the brakes where woeful .

I checked the front brakes and everything is in very good condition, linings seem to fit nice all looks new, I cleaned and reassembled. The rear looked to be the same the linings are like 95% I can clearly see the printing on the side.. The only thing I couldn't see on the rear was the markings for the size of the wheel cyls . I just checked Macs catalogue and I see there is two sizes ..??!! 7/8" and 15/16" Would anyone know if the two are interchangeable? What I mean is will the both bolt to the backing plate?

I had my wife apply the brake so I could see it with the drum off and working [rear], And it seemed to me she had to push real hard to make them work..

Im at a real loss with this and need to get as much input as possible ..Brakes work fine if just general driving BUT the harder I push the worse they become.. chronically fade, there is no way they would come close to locking.. The brakes on my 35 truck can lock!! One day Im going to need the brakes and they just aren't there.. Help!!



"Came too close to dying to stop living now!"

If your fluid in the rear is turning a dirty brown it sounds like you have rust In the rear lines. This usually starts in the wheel cylinders which will seize up and cause all the symptoms you describe.
The sedans use a 7/8" wheel cylinder the wagon/courier use a 15/16" cylinder. The wagons/couriers also use a wider rear shoe than the sedan.
They are interchangeable but will upset your brake balance.

Rick - West Australia
Do Y Blocks Downunder run upside down? Gravity Sucks!!

I agree with Rick.You need to have a good look at your rear brakes.Possibly the rear cylinders are partially seized which is why it takes so much effort to get the brakes working.The type of Booster/Master setup has nothing to do with your problem.Rust in the lines sounds like the reason for the color change.I have this same setup using Discs and it works great.I did replace the rear Cylinders when I did the brakes about 4 years ago.My buddy with a 55 and 4 wheel drums uses it also.Very happy with the way it works.

  

Talkwrench, also check the piece of rubber hose between the axel and the frame (unless its new). If it is deteriorating it could be adding colour to your brake fluid and also blocking the brake fluid. On my pickup I added a remote filler cap to the M/C and had trouble finding brake fluid compatible rubber lines to run from the remote reservoir to the M/C. A local parts man said I could use fuel line. No, it turned the brake fluid brown.

Mark

1956 Mercury M100
1955 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan
Delta, British Columbia

Lift the rubber caps on the cylinders. If they are rusty I would be sure they are leaking as well.

It must be in the hard lines. Partial blockage? The rubber line to the diff is new. The rear cylinders look great , as new. The brakes where done before I got the car, its really done no miles.. Just age I guess?

Maybe its time to buy that double flaring tool Ive always wanted ; o )



"Came too close to dying to stop living now!"

That's the route I'd take as well.

-Gary Burnette-

Have you tried taking the lines apart and used air pressure to blow them out?See if anything unusual comes out.

  

If the linings were new and the drums were not machined at the same time, it would have been necessary to chamfer the edges of the shoes so that they fit into the wornedges in the drum.
If they weren't chamfered then the shoes will only be coming in contact with the outer edges of the drum and not getting full contact across the whole shoe. This will give you a reasonable pedal but very poor brakes until they have worn into the old drum edges.

Might not be your situation but it is a possibility with old drums.

Gary - 1958 Star Customline and 1940 Ford Deluxe Hotrod

Doesn't explain the discolored brake fluid.