OldDodgeOwner

Well, I bought a set of the GM wheel cylinders 6 months ago, finally got around to putting them in tonight. Didn't go too bad, until I started to bleem em. Had them almost all bled out and the pedal was feeling pretty good, then it just dropped to the floor. Turns out, the side of the wheel cylinder housing exploded, dumping brake fluid everywhere.

Question is: why?

Faulty part?
Bad install?

I've never heard of a wheel cylinder exploding out the side, just curious what would cause this. Going to get another one tomorow and start over.

torquefan

Is it possible that the apply pin that goes between the wheel cyl. piston and the brake shoe wasn't engaged properly with the shoe? When you step on the pedal this would allow the piston to extend too far, and fall right out of the wheel cylinder.

OldDodgeOwner

I didn't describe it very clearly. The pin was still engaged with the shoe and the piston was still in place. It blew a chunk of the cast iron housing apart. Looking at the cylinder with the drum off, you can see the side of the piston through the hole in the housing.

johnh

faulty cyl........ take it back

patdaly

Just curious, what was the brand name?

Lots of Chinese made parts, some very good, some well.......

OldDodgeOwner

One was a Napa part, the other was a Wagner. The Wagner is the one that blew. I always thought Wagner were quality parts, but starting to wonder now...

patdaly

LOL, I think they are all running on their names, Raybestos has as much Chinese made parts as Autozone.

OldDodgeOwner

Finally got em done and everything adjusted and bled out. Not a spectacular difference, but plenty to make this well worth the time and effort. Stops a lot better now...

BigGreen96

Will have to make sure mine dont blow out. both mine are wagner...

Also how th heck did you get your drums off? I have tried the jack the truck up and put it in drive and hit hte brakes but not luck my ABS just kicks in and dont allow me to put enough pressure on them to do anything?

Hoping for some better braking glad to hear they make a diff

OldDodgeOwner

That's how I got my drums off. Try going in forward and reverse both. The first time I did it, it took several tries to get them both broke free. Coated the hub with anti-seize last time I had them off and they came free pretty easy this time around.

nickg

quick test to see if you adjusted them well is to apply the brakes while holding pedal down, note distance from pedal to floor, pump pedal the second time if you feel the pedal get higher, then the brakes require further adjustment. you can also feel if the adjustment is off my pumping up the brakes as you come up to a stop, usually on the second pump you will feel a drastic increase in stopping power.
I;ve also found it best to adjust the star wheel till the wheel locks up then back them off for proper drag.
I just re-adjusted my rears tonight, I've gone 4000kms since the last time and they were out, I have to adjust every month, self adjusters never self adjust!

on mine I found I also increased braking effort by lengthening the rear propotioning rod, the first time I lengthened it about 1.5inches, second time I made it adjustable so I could fine tune the rear brakes, the prop rod arm if adjusted to a slightly higher than horizontal seems to work best on my truck.
even after properly adjusted rears and GM wheel cyl, I could not get my rears to "lock" up on a gravel road, after modifing the rear rod I can now drag them