I'm driving 55 mph when a light with a short yellow and a camera changes. I cram on the 63 Valiant's single master cylinder all drum brakes. The car stops at the light but smoke is rolling out the back and the brake pedal goes to the floor. Yee Haw. Rear rebuilt wheel cylinders were in stock at Autozone for $13 each. Ordering fronts. All will be replaced, though they LOOKED good when I put new brake shoes and hardware on. I guess the smoke happened with the brake fluid hit the hot brake drum. Scary.

Be a real good time to get rid of the single pot master too.

Rebuilt A/Z cylinders are usually junk.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

I've never had a problem with Raybestes brake products....in fact, thats all I use. You can find them at Schucks/Checkers/Kragen (whatever it is in your area). Stay away from Autozone for hard parts. Wheel cylinders from there tend to blow out.

Pretty much anything from Advance Auto or Autozone is junk. NAPA has decent stuff, you just have to ask for it.

Man, you must have really stomped it.

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82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

I know the feeling. I had a soft line blow out one time. I was doing about 50mph and wanted to make a turn and the brake pedal went to the floor. I pumped it a coupleof times and the wife asked "what are you doing?" the look on her face when I told her I had no brakes was priceless. In actuallity still had rear brakes. The rest of the ride home was very slow.

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I would beware of rebuilts too. Good new ones are not that much. The Raybestos pg plus or premium Napa parts are good as pointed out. I bought a pair of new Centric rear cylinders from a shop nearby and they did not have expanders in them, just a 1/2" diameter spring. So much for the "all cylinders made in the past 20+ years have expanders" theory. Maybe they all did but with the lowering of quality everywhere it's not true anymore. The bad part is I did not inspect them until I was out of state prepping our car for the drive home with only a few days to do all the work. So I used them and ended up with a mushy pedal by the time we got home. I swapped in new Raybestos cylinders and have had no trouble since. When it comes to brakes, shopping for quality is always less expensive in the long run. Great if you get deal on good parts, but just too much is at stake to go cheap. Even if nobody gets hurt, think about how much the front end of your car might cost. I always disassemble, clean and inspect new wheel cylinders. I have found metal chips and deformed seals a few times.

I was driving southbound on I-5 coming into Portland Oregon when I had to hit the brakes in my 68 d100. The pedal squished to the floor and stayed there. Fortunately I was able to veer off onto one of those huge bridges. A few months prior, I had swapped out my rear end and when I installed the new one I had unknowingly allowed the flexible brake line to lay against the exhaust. Cooked it long enough and it ruptured.

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Excuse me, does this smell like chloroform to you?

Yea, I noticed those cylinders looked smaller and didn't say "Made in the USA" like the old ones. I'll order the fronts from NAPA and report on the differences.