Thread: 49' chevy deluxe master cylinder

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My friend just purchased a 49' chevy styline deluxe. The car has no brakes. We were thinking of installing new brake shoes, spring kit, wheel cyl., ruber brake hoses and a new master cylinder. Does any one know how to take out the master cylinder?, is mounted under the floor. Thanks

The trick is, you have to take the pedal, or pedals if it's a stick, off the cylinder first. There's a retaining bolt on the front of the cylinder boss, perpendicular to the pedal pivot(s). Take it out, then fish the pin that's below it out with a piece of wire. Then its pretty straightforward.

By the way, that '49 has Huck brakes. Be careful when removing the weird coil springs that go from shoe to shoe, they can be impossible to find!

thanks Ill give it a shot tomorrow.

Originally Posted by R Pope

By the way, that '49 has Huck brakes. Be careful when removing the weird coil springs that go from shoe to shoe, they can be impossible to find!

I have a 49 Fleetline, how hard is it to convert those?

Find a '51-'54 Chevy and grab the backing plates, hubs and rear axles, and wheels. That way you have 5 bolt wheels and much better brakes. It all bolts up, and the '49 master cylinder will work with the newer brakes. The fronts are 2" X 11", where the older ones are 1 3/4" X 11". Doesn't seem like much, but you'll notice the difference. Then, with the 5 bolt hubs, you can adapt disc brakes to it when you get some extra bucks.
BTW, if the donor car is a Powerglide, you might want to grab the rear end, too. They had 3.55 gears where yours are 4.11. The old dipper "6" will thank you.

Powerglide cars have a diffrent M/C, pretty sure the bore is diffrent, but I'm not sure. part numbers are deffinetly diffrent. brakes are the same tho, unless wheel cylinders are a diffrent bore.. powerglide is considerably heavier than the 3spd, so they may have used more line preassure..

the '49-'50 brake hardware is deffinetly more expensive.. 'most' of it is available, but all is available for the '51-'54

The '53 and '54 have a 7/8" bore, the older ones are 1". The 'Glide cylinder is different because there is no mounting boss for the clutch pedal, other than that they're the same.

Originally Posted by R Pope

Find a '51-'54 Chevy and grab the backing plates, hubs and rear axles, and wheels. That way you have 5 bolt wheels and much better brakes. It all bolts up, and the '49 master cylinder will work with the newer brakes. The fronts are 2" X 11", where the older ones are 1 3/4" X 11". Doesn't seem like much, but you'll notice the difference. Then, with the 5 bolt hubs, you can adapt disc brakes to it when you get some extra bucks.
BTW, if the donor car is a Powerglide, you might want to grab the rear end, too. They had 3.55 gears where yours are 4.11. The old dipper "6" will thank you.

The 49 is 5 hole wheels.

I think the only diffrence is the backing plate, drum and associated parts.. I just looked in my chevs of the 40s catalog, and '51-'60 is the same P/N for the brake drum. '49-'50 is not listed.. '51-60 uses 4 of the same drum, which would need to accomodate a 2" shoe, the rears are 1 3/4" same as '49-'50 all the way round, so '51-'60 drums should work on the old backing plates if you need drums and can't find a donor car

wouldn't the wider drum make contact with the backing plate?

Willowbilly---Are you sure it hasn't already been converted to newer brakes? I had a '49 and it had 6 bolt wheels, I'm sure the '50's did too.

Originally Posted by R Pope

Willowbilly---Are you sure it hasn't already been converted to newer brakes? I had a '49 and it had 6 bolt wheels, I'm sure the '50's did too.

My friend 1949 styline deluxe has 5 lugs as well.


I saw the catalog, man those brake parts for 49-50 are EXPENSIVE!. I think is cheaper to convert to disc brakes instead. Also not that many stores carry the parts that I need.

Originally Posted by R Pope

Willowbilly---Are you sure it hasn't already been converted to newer brakes? I had a '49 and it had 6 bolt wheels, I'm sure the '50's did too.

Are we talking about sedans, not pickups? As far as I know the 48 year model were the last 6 hole production wheels on Chevy passenger cars except for maybe something like ultra rare Nascar equipped 57s.
This is my 49

Originally Posted by R Pope

Willowbilly---Are you sure it hasn't already been converted to newer brakes? I had a '49 and it had 6 bolt wheels, I'm sure the '50's did too.

'48 is the last listed year for 6 bolt wheels in my '53 Motors Manual