The front wheel cylinders I installed 12 years ago (!!!) are leaking.   There is a kit to put disk brakes on this car but I have a set of new shoes and two NOS wheel cylinders so I will defer that decision (probably for another 12 years).  But I need to rebuild those cylinders.

The cylinders on the car were new when I installed them but a few years back I found a set of NOS cylinders cheap so I will use the new ones.   But they are old stock so before I put them on the car I want to put fresh rubber parts and springs in them. So I ordered two rebuild kits.

I pulled the cylinders apart.  The rubber was pretty stiff so this was a good thing.  All I am going to use again are the pistons and the cylinder.   Whatever they put in there when the cylinder was built has turned into tar.  You can see the crap on the pistons in this picture.

I cleaned everything up with brake cleaner (on the left) then alcohol (on the right).  Everything cleaned up nicely.

The cylinders look really good.  You can see a mark where the piston was but it is perfectly smooth in there.

Time to assemble.   I have the seals in fresh, clean brake fluid here.  I could not take pictures while assembling the cylinder because I don’t have three hands.  But the general sequence is to rub some brake fluid inside the cylinder. Next put one piston in the outer boot and install them both in the cylinder.   Then stack the seal, spring, and other seal in the cylinder.  Finally put the second piston and boot on.

The boots that came with the kits seem a little small.  I had to really stretch them over the cylinders.  I hope they are correct.   Interestingly the Studebaker parts book lists the same part number for the front and rear brake cylinder even though the rear is smaller.

Ready to go into the car!  I can’t do that today, rain is expected and the cherry tree outside is really dumping flower petals right now.   But I need to get to it soon.