Beemon

I rebuilt my pump with a kit from CARS. Any new kits will be ethanol resistant, stay away from NOS pumps and kits unless you want to rebuild them or throw them in the trash.

Those fuel pumps are easy to rebuild. Assuming you didn't rip the oil seals, usually those and the diaphragms can be left alone and the big rubber pieces are usually all that needs to be replaced. I can't recall a weep hole on any of the pumps I've seen, both here and at the junkyard, but perhaps the pulsator diaphragm ruptured and it's seeping out the top?

All the vendors have pretty much the same stuff. Call ahead and see who ships the fastest, in this case.

Don't use a point file, use a burnishing tool like emery cloth if cleaning the points up.

$21,250 seems really low for that car... is it because it's not a Chevy?

RIP

I'm not married, but I can say my girlfriend knows now to stay away from the house when she sees a drum or two off the car. I don't think she liked helping me bleed them one night after midnight in the cold rain; her laptop died.

I'm pretty sure Bernie was talking about an inertia switch for the fuel pump and not the seat belts.

Just imagine what else is from Speedway

Where do the Nailheads fit in?

My grandfather installed an old SW vacuum gauge under the dash and I've kept it in my car. When I had vacuum wipers, it seemed climbing hills the vacuum gauge would drop to about 6"Hg and the wipers would stop. This base line 6"Hg is what the pump put out under load, where manifold vacuum is close to 0"Hg, so even it wasn't enough to keep them going. You could even try using a vacuum reservoir, but it would most likely run out before you let off the throttle. Land isn't flat out here where I live and it rains a lot, so I got rid of the system all together.

You didn't mention anything about the fuel system. Is the pump working when the starter is spinning the crank? Was the carburetor gone through? How's the gas tank and sending unit look?

Hold on to that capacitor, they don't make them anymore.

Lol Lady Century gets the sweet treatment when the girlfriends aren't watching. I thought about the hoses but I replaced all three two years ago. I also thought about swapping wheel cylinders, too. I used the wheel cylinders that came with the backing plates but retained my original hoses. Could the wheel cylinder hang up on the inside? Maybe I got some dirt somehow in the opening when installing? Just started nights at the Amazon warehouse so I won't be able to check until Wednesday, but since I pulled the drum and sanded the shoe a bit with 80 grit sandpaper, they seem to be doing better.

From my research, the drums and backing plates are different, everything else is the same. The drums are newer from a vender, but again were checked and trued up. I expanded the shoes about 8 clicks out and after pulling over, I expanded them another 6 clicks until the drag was gone, but then I had a really low pedal. My guess is that the drums were contacting the shoes at high speed enough to heat them up and expand. After expanding, I had light shuddering on braking only.

Looks like that's my next big ticket item... There's a 53 Roadmaster by me, but the car is on the ground, resting on the backing plates. That's what's pictured above. Looks like I'll be converting back to 2.25 shoes until I can find both some original cores and a local relining shop.

My 02 Liberty has a dual reservoir master cylinder and when my front line blew, all I had was the parking brake. If fluid is missing from one reservoir, you still have no brakes because the piston relies on fluid being in both reservoirs to function - it's nothing more than a proportioning valve. If it helps you sleep better at night, more power to you, but I rebuilt my power brake system myself and it hasn't failed me yet. Worked better than the dual reservoir and power booster I had installed when I first had it on the road.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Even I got the drums, I had them turned and that was about it. Looks like I need to track down some original shoes. I pulled many sets from over the counter and all the 12x2.25 shoes looked correct and all the 12x2.5 shoes looked to be the other style. I haven't had issue with over the counter shoes when using the 12x2.25 shoes, only just recently with the 12x2.5 shoes.

So what you're saying is, the difference in the lining mounting metal will make a significant enough difference in performance to warrant not using them? If that is the case, then I'm probably screwed and would have been better off just staying with the 12x2.25 shoes. I hope some Roadmaster owners chime in with what shoes they use for the front 12x2.5 shoes because everything over the counter looks like this.

Since I got my front Roadmaster brakes, it's been more trouble than it's worth. For starters, I had the driver side shoes expand at 65 MPH on the highway and cause rough shuddering until I was able to pull over and expand the shoes out. I had originally replaced the front shoes that came with the backing plates with some shoes from NAPA that are their Ultra Premium brand. They also had their standard Proformer brand, which is what I had run before with the 12x2.25 shoes. The issue I've come across now is that the original 12x2.25 shoes I had on the car have a different cut for the friction material as the 12x2.5 Ultra Premium stuff and the 12x2.5 Proformer stuff is also different from the other two. On top of this, I compared my old 12x2.25 shoes to new 12x2.25 shoes and they also had a different friction cut pattern. All the shoe sets were different from each other. The TS197 number (12x2.25 Proformer) also has a different brake shoe metal footprint than the TS127 (12x2.5 Proformer), which is the same as the Ultra Premium stuff. My question is, does this all matter? Thickness of friction material, the way it's cut and bonded, and the mounting bracket under the shoe? This is really frustrating me because in anticipation to this I haven't heard of anyone else having issues and there's plenty of Roadmasters out there. I'm really thinking these subtle differences will screw with the triangulation. The master parts book at the local NAPA, the 40 year old one, even says that on 52-56 Buick Roadmasters, to give them the 12x2.25 shoes up front, despite the drums being 12x2.5. Pictures included: The paint on the outside of the drum cooked clean off. NAPA Ultra Premium NAPA 12x2.25 Proformer 12x2.5 shoes that came with the backing plates Anchor points are different (lower on the 12x2.5 shoes) Adjuster point is higher on the 12x2.5 shoes Return spring holes are placed differently

I see quite a bit of these around the ghetto parts of town. Some of them have fallen off, too.

Hope this helps. Like I said, it hugs the oil pan, doesn't go through anything.

I've never had an issue. When I first installed it, it gushed a little bit at first start up. I learned real quick that the best way to check if it's tight enough is whether or not you can rotate the glass bowl when it's finger tight. Once it's that tight, I also give it another quarter turn. I got mine with the stone element, but I figured the ethanol would eat it up. I haven't had an issue with it since.

Sorry I misworded that. What I meant to say is, any reason why you wouldn't use the original master cylinder?

Any reason why you're engineering the dual reservoir for the brakes?