AA Hydraulic Brakes

[E.Moore]

I've only heard of hydrauliuc conversions for the AA, until now. Attached is a photo of two 30/31 backing plates with hydraulic cylinders. The fellow who owns them does not know what year the wheel cylinders came from, perhaps a 51 ton and a half, but it is not important. The main idea is to remove the brake actuator and locate wheel cylinders which are close to the width of the actuator mechanism. The wheel cylinder pistons must have a slot in them to allow the brake shoes to stay in alignment during brake engagement.

Ford, Chevy, Dodge, International or any manufacturer who made something close to the width of the AA brake actuator would work. If the brake cylinder needed two bolt mounting holes, simply drill them. The AA backing plate should be able to be modified any way that is needed to accept hydraulic wheel cylinders. Once the hydraulic wheel cylinders are installed, a very good master cylinder is the 1967 Ford dual reservoir master cylinder. If one wheel begins to leak, the second reservoir will allow the axle set of brakes that is not leaking to stop the vehicle safely.

The emergency brakes would have to be moved to the external drum type mounted at the rear of the transmission, if emergency brakes were desired.

The two backing plates in the photo have been used for more than 40 years on the truck they came off of and they are about to be cleaned, repainted, reshoed and rebuild the wheel cylinders for another 40 years of service.

I've tried to upload the photo, but the file extension will not go through. It is a standard word .doc file.

[Neil Wilson]

Hello Eric,
Would you please send me the Word document? wilsmor@juno.com

[E.Moore]

Finally able to upload the photo.