tons of info needs to be extracted from this thread

[dmack91]

Looks like about what I did a couple of months ago, except I got a title with mine.

Brakes worked, but I went through them anyway. Good thing too, as I found that the PO, like most people with a full floating rear end, appeared to have never done the brakes. Metal to metal, but it still stopped.

After all fluids and routine maintenance, it has been my around town truck, and it is a blast. I paid $650 for it, and have about that much into everything else.

FYI, parts and machine work ran me around $175 for both front and rear through NAPA. The best thing I did was retrofit a power brake booster on it.

Enjoy the journey, I still am.

[bollybib]

To the afore-posted C20s aficionados:

greenbd71 (Brandon): That's pretty cool about getting your truck featured in a mag. Interesting history on it, too. I see you are the instigator of the "Post pics of your Longbed Trucks!! No short stuffs allowed!!" thread. I had to look deep to find it but I brought it ttt on 3/26/11. Longbeds is a nice general category that brought in a lot of pics, good job.

dmack91: You're my kinda guy, $650 seems real fair to me. You lucked out with a 68, too. If you feel ambitious, maybe you could put up some more pics in your "New Project" thread, they'd be interesting to see. When I decided I wanted a 67-72, my first choice was a 67 or 68 327 automatic. But, you have to pick from what's available and I ended up with what you see here, no regrets. You're driving around in yours, too. I'm not quite there yet, although I suppose I could get by. I do drive it up and down my nice, flat, 600 ft. long cul-de-sac now and again to check out things as I fix them. You're right about the rear brakes being neglected. Keep tuned and I'll show you the mess I found.

[bollybib]

The following several posts describe the work I did on my brakes from November 2010 until March 2011. I divided it into several posts (BRAKES I - VII) because I can only upload five pics per post.

BRAKES I.

After about a week of fooling around in the street, I managed to get the truck into the garage to begin "real work". I suppose I could have just taken everything apart and started from scratch, but I wanted to evaluate the condition of the equipment, identify specific problems, and then do the work that I found necessary in a systematic way.

Checking out the brake lines I found:
Rear system: Rear line kinked at the wheel cylinder connection (WC) on the passenger side (PS). Main line rubbing on exhaust pipe at frame crossover.
Front system: Evidence of a leak at the tee fitting on driver side (DS) (before and after pics). PS hose cracked.
Master cylinder (MC): Very rusty, fluid very dirty (replaced by clean fluid in the pic). A tee fitting at the MC rear port with branch line into the cab.

I sucked the muck out of the MC with a vacuum bleeder. I use the vac thing now and again but I usually have better luck bleeding the brakes manually, so that’s what I did. I bled the rears and watched streams of black gook pour out, but not much air. The kinked line allowed fluid to pass and wasn’t leaking. Once the fluid ran clear, I moved to the fronts. I couldn’t get any flow at all, so the WC orifices were probably blocked. I cleaned all the crud off the tee fitting, put in new hoses, rebuilt the cylinders, cleaned up the backing plates, installed new stuff (BRAKES II), and tried again. I decided to rebuild the old WCs before installing new ones so I could continue to flush and pressurize the system without worrying about damaging new WCs. The fronts then bled OK, but I still had a way soft pedal, so I was probably seeing only MC problems now.

I removed the MC and bench bled it. I made an MC bleeding system with plastic tubing and flare nut/steel tubing fittings. I figured this was a good exercise and I wanted to know that all the air was out of it anyway. Then I reinstalled it and bled once more.

I found that if I pushed the brake pedal down quickly, I’d get about an inch of firmness at the bottom of travel. If I pushed the pedal down slowly, the pedal always sank to the floor. Pumping helped little to none. I then tried this with the MC outlet ports plugged and got the same results. Conclusion: replace the MC.

[bollybib]

BRAKES II

I rebuilt the front brakes first since they were simpler and more familiar than the rears, pretty much the same as a car, just a little bigger. Once I had the drums and hubs off and had my first look, ugh, what a mess ! The adjusting screw on the DS was completely backed out. Both WCs had been leaking (for a long time I think) and the shoes and drums were metal-to-metal. At least I found all the hardware intact and complete. I took everything apart, cleaned the hardware and backing plate, and reassembled using new WCs, shoes, and drums. Although needed, I deferred cleaning and repacking the wheel bearings until later (see the What did you do to your truck today! link, http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...postcount=2007 ).

[bollybib]

BRAKES III

When I removed the MC, I damaged the rear MC-to-DB line. I couldn’t find a seller for this one prefabricated line (lots of kits available, but no onesy-twosies). I also had a kinked line in the rear that needed attention (I couldn’t find this individual piece prefabbed, either). I decided to make my own lines and bought a flaring kit, bending tools, brake line and some fittings. I’m glad I went this route because later I needed to make a pump-to-carburetor fuel line. I bought short lengths of both cunifer and steel tubing so I could experiment. I practiced by making several flares and bends. I didn’t find a huge difference in working the two types, although steel seemed slightly easier and is a lot cheaper. When I made the real line, I checked my bending radii closely and used a piece of 14 gauge copper wire (from a piece of Romex, the kind used in your home, easy to bend to shape) to mock up routing. I managed to get a decent looking, good fitting line on the second attempt. I made the MC line from cunifer.

I bench bled my new MC, installed it, and bled the whole system once again. Considering how dirty the original fluid was, more bleeding (and consequently, more flushing) wasn’t a waste. But, by this time I had made several trips to O’Reilly’s to replenish my supply of brake fluid. I should have bought a gallon right off the bat instead of smaller containers. After a few bleeds, I made a calculation of the approximate capacity of the lines so I would know when I had displaced all the fluid in the line instead of guessing on how many pedal pushes or whatever. On my truck, from the MC to a rear WC is about 4.5 fl oz and from the MC to a front WC is about 1.5 fl oz. (including the common line). Using a plastic bottle with fluid ounce calibration marks on it for a receptor, I could see when I had displaced all the fluid in a line.

A PO had installed a trailer brake system (TBS) [Kelsey Hayes 81739, vintage unknown]. I found the wiring for the brake warning light had been modified and a hydraulic line had been added from the MC to the TBS controller in the cab. I first made a sketch of the existing wiring and then compared it to the schematic in the Service Manual. Then I removed the entire TBS system and got the wiring back in order. The brake warning light then came on like it should on Start (which it didn’t do before). I couldn’t get it to light up on Run when I’d hit the brakes with one bleed screw open. I tried opening both front and rear and I tried tapping the DB with a hammer, too. The internal shuttle that acts as a differential pressure switch must be stuck. No biggy for the moment (add to The List).

When I first contemplated doing this work, I realized that I hadn’t bled brakes in many years. Since that time long ago, the Internet arrived. So I looked at a lot of howto’s (and howto NOTS!) on YouTube, this site, and elsewhere. I thought these two were informative and entertaining.

YouTube - Bleeding the wheel cylinders

YouTube - Road Test # 1.. Brakes Work!

At this point I had decent brake pedal so I fired up the truck and made a few tentative moves to back out of the garage. It felt OK, so out I went and parked it in the street. The fronts were doing their work now and it was the rears that needed help.

[bollybib]

BRAKES IV

The rear brakes were more interesting because I was unfamiliar with the construction of the rear axle and wheel hub/drum assemblies. I had been acquiring service manuals, reading posts on The Board, watching YouTube, etc., so I was learning. I like to study-up beforehand on a project to so I can overcome the inevitable mistakes and unforeseens that occur without panic. I like to work through the whole sequence of work in my head a few times before turning a wrench. The unfamiliar becomes the familiar by the time I actually do the work.

I needed a lock nut removal tool to remove and install the wheel hub so I bought one. If I had to replace the drums (very likely), I would need a press to remove the wheel bolts to separate the drum from the hub. I started looking around for a shop press. New brake shoes and cylinders were readily available, but the drum was a different story. I located a few sources of new drums, many of them expensive, I thought.

At last one day mid-January 2011 I had enough ducks in a row to start work. I moved the truck onto the driveway so as not to clutter the garage any longer and also have enough room to slide the axles out. I did one side at a time, starting on the DS. The DS hub and drum assembly was a little stubborn to slide off the shoes, but otherwise, no difficulties. Confidence level up, I decided to replace the kinked brake line while I was at it. I made the new one with steel tubing. The rear hose looked OK so I decided to leave it alone for now but it is something to keep an eye on (add to The List). The worst part was cleaning out all the accumulated crud, red Utah dirt, and so on (not quite as bad as the fronts).

[bollybib]

BRAKES V

The reassembly of the shoes and WCs went OK. Here’s an interesting note. I bought the rear WCs from NAPA; one made in USA, the other in China. Guess which one had a casting interference with the hole in the backplate (it wasn’t China). A little grinding and all was well. The brake line was a challenge to fabricate, but I took my time and got it the first time. I made a short-handled brake line wrench to get to the fitting mounted inside the axle bracket due to restricted swing room (I’m working under the truck with everything in place except the spare tire). I found the keys to success (for novices like me) to make good brake lines are: practice a lot, be very patient, make lots of trial fits, and get the fittings aligned as accurately as possible so you don’t have to force anything when you screw them together.

I pressure tested the system now and again by pushing the brake pedal down and holding it in place with a clamp. A few minor snug-ups of fittings here and there was all I needed to get it leak free. The tee fitting at the front stayed dry (and still is as of this writing) so maybe the fitting was not secure to begin with or the source of the leak was elswhere (from above, perhaps).

The bearing cups looked worn, they were concave. Other than their shape, they looked fine. I ran a lot of new gear oil through the bearings in the hub rather than clean them, good enough for now. I decided to later replace the bearings at the same time as the drums and do it all at once. A future wheel hub project, basically (add to The List).

[Ed 72 Sierra Grande]

Originally Posted by bollybib

BRAKES IV

The rear brakes were more interesting because I was unfamiliar with the construction of the rear axle and wheel hub/drum assemblies. I had been acquiring service manuals, reading posts on The Board, watching YouTube, etc., so I was learning. I like to study-up beforehand on a project to so I can overcome the inevitable mistakes and unforeseens that occur without panic. I like to work through the whole sequence of work in my head a few times before turning a wrench. The unfamiliar becomes the familiar by the time I actually do the work.

I needed a lock nut removal tool to remove and install the wheel hub so I bought one. If I had to replace the drums (very likely), I would need a press to remove the wheel bolts to separate the drum from the hub. I started looking around for a shop press. New brake shoes and cylinders were readily available, but the drum was a different story. I located a few sources of new drums, many of them expensive, I thought.

Attachment 735682

At last one day mid-January 2011 I had enough ducks in a row to start work. I moved the truck onto the driveway so as not to clutter the garage any longer and also have enough room to slide the axles out. I did one side at a time, starting on the DS. The DS hub and drum assembly was a little stubborn to slide off the shoes, but otherwise, no difficulties. Confidence level up, I decided to replace the kinked brake line while I was at it. I made the new one with steel tubing. The rear hose looked OK so I decided to leave it alone for now but it is something to keep an eye on (add to The List). The worst part was cleaning out all the accumulated crud, red Utah dirt, and so on (not quite as bad as the fronts).

Attachment 735683 Attachment 735684 Attachment 735685

Great Job and post