Lionel,
You can get good quality wheel cylinders from the UK.
For example
Wheel cylinder SWB rear RH to 80/81 - Delphi Lockheed - Paddock Spares
I've had a good run with the cheaper cylinders and also re-conditioned/re-sealed a lot of old ones. As they are readily available I've not gone down the route of re-sleeving.
Father-in-Law used to work in the brake industry, some years back it was $60 to get a wheel cylinder sleeved regardless of how complicated the cylinder was, not sure how much it is nowadays.
As for removing drums.....I've been lucky with most but I did recently end up undoing the nuts that hold the hub in place and removed the hub at the same time. The brake linings came off the shoes as I levered the drum off !
There is a tapped hole in the drums (either 5/16" or 3/8" Whitworth) that you can screw a bolt into to separate it from the hub. I find by inserting a bolt & tightening then tapping round the drum with a hide mallet, then re-tightening the bolt etc. it eventually comes off.
As for removing/fitting springs I have used pieces of wire, pointy pliers, special brake spring pliers. I guess if I was doing it regularly I'd get good at it but every time I do it a bit differently and manage to get it reassembled/disassembled.
BRAKE SPRING PLIER-REMOVES AND INSTALLS BRAKE SPRINGS | eBay
Made this when working on Wallit
DSCN2031 by
Colin Radley, on Flickr
Just a strip of steel that hooked over the shoe so you attached the springs then used brute force on a bar in the other end of the strip to get the shoe into place.
Colin
Bookmarks