Rear wheel cylinders

So I replaced the rear drum brakes on my '72 Duster340. Exhausted, I cleaned up, leaving the car on stands, in the garage overnight. Next morning, I see that my new cylinders have leaked a little (4" pool's on both sides of the garage floor) around the seals. Now I've never seen this before, and I opened the bleeders to let off any pressure that might have been applied when I hooked up all the new springs. Did I buy defective cylinders? Or does this happen sometimes. I've yet to bleed them. As I don't want to make a bad situation worse. Did I stupidly over look something reinstalling everything? The last time I changed the cylinders was around 20 years ago, so maybe I forgot something? :banghead:

there are cheap cylinders from China and I have been told they leak - but within a year not hours!!!

1sttvbn said:

I opened the bleeders to let off any pressure that might have been applied when I hooked up all the new springs.

Click to expand...

Wait. You did what? Maybe I'm not understanding. Did you close the bleeders again?

If you didn't, that's where the puddles came from. You gravity bled your system. Too bad you probably emptied the master cylinder.

And on another note, you didn't add any pressure to anything when you hooked up the new brake springs. Any fluid displaced (if any at all) when you install the springs goes back to the master cylinder. Even if the master cylinder is completely full, that fluid will just leak out at the master- the seal on the master cylinder lid is not designed to hold pressure. Same thing happens when you step on the brakes and release them, the springs pull the brakes back and the brake fluid that was holding them out returns to the master.

yes you forgot something over 20 years.need a servise manual?

It was a faulty wheel cylinder, but it's nice to know I can come here and get smart *** comments. I'm fifty years old, this isn't my first brake job. J06 you were right, they were shitty Chinese cylinders. The car was restored twenty years ago, I put maybe 300 miles a year on it (That's 6000 miles). That's why they didn't need replacing sooner. And I have all the original service manuals.

This is why I prefer to rebuild my own. Much cheaper and you reuse quality AMERICAN castings.