Finding the culprit for losing brakes - pictures too

Well shoot... the wife was driving my 62 CJ5 and all of the sudden - NO BRAKES! She blew through a stop sign (luckily nothing wrecked and no one hurt). Anyways, I've got the master cylinder off, and I'm in the process of rebuilding it. Here's some pictures...
Sorry - I never took one while it was still mounted. I suspected a small leak from the boot/primary cup.

All taken apart -


Here she is in primer grey-


Then I started to take off a suspect wheel. The right rear had what appears to be a small leak of brake fluid from the bottom of the drum. This is what I found on the inside. Look closely at the right of the wheel cylinder. The cup is blown out and fluid is indeed leaking.





The big question right now is, how the heck do I get this hub nut off?!?! I'm guessing the blow torch will be making an appearance soon, which may also thaw my freezing fingers.

 

And another question, should it be that dirty inside?

 

if its not a axle seal leaking , then why do you want to pull hub
if you do need to remove hub , then a big breaker bar and socket will be needed , also a trip to local auto parts store and rent a hub puller
no it should only be brake dust

 

I want to get the hub off so that I can do a whole system check and some maintenance. I already got a puller lined up through the local auto guys.

 

All that mess that I see didn't all come from brake fluid and brake dust. Doesn't look like that poor thing as ever been serviced.

 

The castle nut should come off with a large breaker bar. Working it with PB Blaster could also help. Just work it gently; they're only torqued to 150+ foot-pounds, and you don't want to twist the shaft tip off. Not quite sure how pulling the hub is going to help you, though.

 

You don't need to pull the hub just to service the brake shoes and wheel cylinder. If you needed to get the backing plate off for some reason, then maybe pull the hub, but I think you could even pop the axle out with the hub still on to get the backing plate off.

Don

 

Ok great. Then I'll leave it in, because the damn thing won't even budge an inch. Also, I was afraid you guys might be saying that there's too much crude in there. It almost looks like the PO drove through a brush fire.

 

I don't really understand your problem. Look at my brakes, I just post photos in early CJ5. And I repaired easily. You have probably a leak on your brake cylinder, it is easy to change. use a good product to clean.

You have to clean all first. I don't believe that your master cylinder has a problem. But brakes are important, maybe better to see a pro, spare aprts are cheap.

 

Now is a good time to replace the MC with a dual chamber. That way you won't loose brakes entirely if a wheel cylinder goes south. Blowing through a stop sign without brakes could have been a disaster. Consider changing the MC out, it could save your life later.

 

From what I've read, a dual chamber MC requires some fabrication...? I'm not really in the mood to go crazy on the brakes right now. I do agree that it will have to be done in the future, but I'm thinking for now I'll just keep a close eye on the fluid level.

 

Was there any fluid in the master when you took it off? If it was a sudden loss of pressure, I would bet a brake line rusted away.