Replace wheel cylinders as preventative maintenance?

I'm the kind of guy who would rather put some new parts in and avoid my family get stranded somewhere. On that note...

Last night a wheel cylinder seal failed on my wife's car (drum was soaked and so was the back of the tire/wheel; lines were dry). It's a '99 with 198k on it. Is there any wisdom to replacing the other wheel cylinder at the same time? I know at least one (original stock) caliper on my 9C1 was not in good shape when I replaced it at 163k this summer.

Always replace wheel cylinders in pairs especially with that kind of mileage.Cheap insurance in
my book.I am sure that someone will debate my reasoning but you just dont take chances and
cut corners when it comes to brakes!
Jim

I agree with Jim, and your already going to be in there replacing the shoes on the "good" side anyhow.... Right?

Mike

The cylinders are so cheap that it is only sensible to replace both. I think I paid about $10 each for them. You can get rebuild kits, but they require honing to work right. The rebuilt ones cost almost the same as the kit to rebuild them. You should check them at specific intervals because they have self adjusters, and can run the shoes out until they wear through to the metal backing, and then into your drums.

$13.59 apiece + the crazy Advance Auto online discount. I'll be doing both.

You mean you can't just spray some brake cleaner on the shoes and call them good????

sherlock9c1 wrote:

$13.59 apiece + the crazy Advance Auto online discount. I'll be doing both.

You mean you can't just spray some brake cleaner on the shoes and call them good????

you have a propane torch? heat the shoes up with the torch, it boils the brake fluid out,spray them with brake cleaner and set fire to them,. it'll burn/boil the brake fluid out,either way.

trick number 31 from nicks' book of cheap fixes,.

Nick

Rule #1 when using any if Nicks cheap fixes,always keep a fire estinguisher very close by!
Jim

Flasheroo wrote:

Rule #1 when using any if Nicks cheap fixes,always keep a fire estinguisher very close by!
Jim

good advice ,. for the morons that are incapable of thinking for themselves,
but if they are incapable of burning brake fluid out of brake shoes, they are more than likely incapable of finding a safe place to do it, thats how and why there are always disclaimers attached everywhere about everything,. so when the moron sprays the brake cleaner on the brake shoes and lights it off on the kitchen table,. it,s the moron who gets upset and bleats plaintively that they weren't told of the obvious danger,. danger that most capable men can deal with everyday using their common sense ,. which is not so common anymore,

DISCLAIMER.
if you are a MORON, do not attempt any of nicks' tricks.
IF you are unsure of your status as to whether you are in fact a MORON or not a MORON,. please ask here on this forum for a free assessment from nick, before you attempt any published time saving nicks' trick.

Nick

Better a safe moron than a burned out one!Nice disclaimer Nick!
Jim

Flasheroo wrote:

Better a safe moron than a burned out one!Nice disclaimer Nick!
Jim

In the early years morons were killed off by natural evolution , by their intelligence level being substandard,. which cut down on their breeding, which kept moron levels back within reasonable limits. Which kept human species smarter and at the top of the food chain,.

Now, with all this "save the world and keep everybody alive at all costs" type of thinking that's out there, combined with the new safety rules and regulations industry thats been spawned from political correctness encouraged and propagated by incapable sub intelligent morons as a way for increasing the survival rate for other morons over the last few decades, morons can now breed more morons and further deplete the levels of intelligence, and are slowly lowering the human species from the top of the food chain,. and so now humans start equating animals as equals, adopting sub species as equals in their daily lives,.and bestowing the same rights and privileges on the sub species as if they were human offspring.

God,.. the gene pool needs a little chlorine,..and a fire extinguisher.

Nick

Damn this scares me!Nick you actually are making sense to me.Modern medicine saving lives because they can with no concern what kind of future that life maay or may not have due to
severe mental deficencys.Here comes the preaching!
Jim

The eugenists movement rears its evil head. The Germans tried it, Margaret Sanger started Planned Parenthood for that reason, and a lot of Democrats including BO would like to see the movement revived. The problem is that they want to say who get to be euthanized.

Soylent Green for everyone!!!!!!!!!

SOYLENT GREEN.... IS PEOPLE!

Hey Nick - remember my dad and I driving my 9C1 for lap after lap at Waterford Hills? Yeah two of those pads were soaked in brake fluid (tragic accident during the pre-race thrash), cleaned them up with brake cleaner and no flames and they drove just fine. The flame trick works well too.

So it's sunday night at 8-something PM. I went to "preventatively replace" the passenger side wheel cylinder and the brakeline twisted right off. Great. So I went to the parts store and got some tube and all the flaring equipment and a union and made myself a new end. Got the backs all bled out and discovered chrysler has the system setup diagonally. So I go to bleed the fronts and the front FR caliper bleed screw is stripped and won't come out. So I flipped the caliper out and held it with the brakeline fitting at the highest point and cracked/bled it there. Going to try the driver's side now. Pedal is getting slowly more firm but still softy.

So it's done. Bought a new caliper, slapped it on in about 10 minutes, then bled the RF for quite awhile and got a pedal. Changed the oil while it was up in the air. Rear flare nuts are oozing ever so slightly from where they plug into the wheel cylinders. I tightened them just a smidge and I'll check them again in a few days.

I will say this - the GM vehicles I've owned all gravity-bleed like champs. Not so with this Chrysler. Drip.... Drip...... Drip.....

FWIW, 96-00 chrysler minivans have this nasty tendency to strip out the lower caliper mounting hole which is the steering knuckle. One of these days maybe I'll put in a helicoil.

sherlock9c1 wrote:

So it's done. Bought a new caliper, slapped it on in about 10 minutes, then bled the RF for quite awhile and got a pedal.

What! you didn't replace the the other side as well!

Mike

sherlock9c1 wrote:

So it's done. Bought a new caliper, slapped it on in about 10 minutes, then bled the RF for quite awhile and got a pedal. Changed the oil while it was up in the air. Rear flare nuts are oozing ever so slightly from where they plug into the wheel cylinders. I tightened them just a smidge and I'll check them again in a few days.

I will say this - the GM vehicles I've owned all gravity-bleed like champs. Not so with this Chrysler. Drip.... Drip...... Drip.....

FWIW, 96-00 chrysler minivans have this nasty tendency to strip out the lower caliper mounting hole which is the steering knuckle. One of these days maybe I'll put in a helicoil.

we stepped up to genIV,. !!

200OZ wrote:

sherlock9c1 wrote:

So it's done. Bought a new caliper, slapped it on in about 10 minutes, then bled the RF for quite awhile and got a pedal.

What! you didn't replace the the other side as well!

Mike

A two-word phrase comes to mind: Screw that!