Wheel cylinder sources

[tokarev]

Who has the best prices on CCKW wheels cylinders? and actually has them in stock?

[mudflap]

Hello Tokarev,

Are you looking to purchase complete new wheel cylinders, or planning on rebuilding the existing ones ?

Bets Regards...

[tokarev]

I was considering both depending on price

[Bill_Wolf]

When I restored my Chevy Fire truck (G506) I sent my wheel cylinders out to White Post Restorations to have them rebuilt. Price was a little more than "new" wheel cylinders from one of the big "Old Chevy" supply houses.

Turn around was quick. They were back in 8 days.

I installed them with no issues and they worked well. 3 years later one of the front wheel cylinders began to seep fluid. I returned it to the rebuilder and they repaired it under their lifetime warranty.

Proves to me that the warranty does work and other than shipping I should be set on wheel cylinders for this truck as long as I own it.

Check on the White Post web page for particulars. http://www.whitepost.com/

Good Luck

Bill

[mudflap]

When I rebuilt my system, I purchased the rubber parts from NAPA, and had stainless steel sleeves installed in the wheel cylinders and the master cylinder. The sleeves were installed by Brake and Equipment Warehouse, in Minneapolis. Their workmanship was absolutely first rate – just beautiful. Turnaround was a couple of weeks.

Based on Bill’s experience with White Post, it sounds like they would be an excellent choice as well. All of us can appreciate a company with good customer service that stands behind their products.

I think the sleeve route is typically more expensive than new replacement wheel cylinders. However, due to the unsealed design of the CCKW brake system, along with the hygroscopic nature of standard brake fluid (just loves to absorb water), I think that you are ahead in the long run by getting them sleeved. White Post advertises brass sleeves, Brake and Equipment uses stainless steel. There is some debate over which is better, but I think that everyone would agree that either sleeve material is still way better than none at all.

If you do choose new cylinders, I think that either Frank von Rosenstiel in Canada, or Rex Ward in the UK have them. Rears are pretty easy to come by. However, I have heard that fronts are a little harder to find because of the angled brake line mounting on the CCKW, which is required in order to clear the upper trunnion mount. (I have not experienced this personally. Perhaps someone with more experience can clarify this or correct if it is in error).

CCKW brakes are one of those things that seem to inevitably elicit those four very expensive words: “While I’m at it”. So, I’ll ask the question now. Are you planning on servicing the master cylinder, as well? If you already have the wheel cylinders apart, it would probably be a good time to do so. Likewise for the Hydrovac unit - "while you’re at it ".

p.s. There are also a number of posts on this forum with a lot of good information related to servicing the CCKW brake system.

Best Regards…

[dr deuce]

I have used White Post for a number of cylinders and masters.

Next time I am going to try stainless. I think stainless with brass pistons is the way to go.

I have not found the split fronts as a rebuild kit. My local shop found parts from one kit and the rest of the parts from another kit. Too expensive to throw 1/2 of the parts away...

The Banjo front wheel cylinders only need the angled one on the drivers side due to the steering arm. I use the regular civy ones (straight in) for the passengers side.