Ok, at long last I found the problem with the master cylinder...the one from the caddy was for POWER brakes...DOH! I shoulda known better than that. Thats all taken care of, the NEW one from the parts store that goes to a 68 chevy c10 1/2 ton with front drums and NO booster worked wonderfully when bench bled properly ...one snag though... BRAKES STILL DONT WORK ENOUGH TO STOP....they kinda slow down...the parking brake does the same thing, this would lead me to think "adjust them!" and I am going to...but... I'm going to go ahead and replace EVERYTHING I can so it will last longer before having to do this again, I need to know what brake shoes, wheel cylinders, etc will interchange between the '56 chieftain and other makes...(I'm a little low on cash right now to pay outrageous prices from collector car parts houses...)
you better check that adjustment,old style bendix had an "anchor" pin up top.you have to pull the wheels off,then look for a slot in the brake drum,that's to insert a feeler gauge,shoul have the same .010 clearance top and bottom-george
I know Im new here, but I happen to run a brake shop. Ill check my books in the morning to see if they can interchange w/ something newer.
yorgatron, thanks man, I looked through the shop manual that came with my car last night...it tells about the anchor pin and the feeler guage, I drove over to my OLD house in Denning (Man, Bo Huff's Dad's place dont look the same without the old folks sittin on the front porch ) and got the rest of my tools to make this a lil easier... sodapop, I would greatly appreciate it man! I used to have access to some interchangabilty books, but no longer...
The Jalopy Journal
