Has anyone on here worked on old Checkers? I'm helping a friend with his brakes that keep blowing out Wheel Cylinders for some reason. Im looking at different options like a different MC, Different Hubs / spindles, etc. I want to find Chevy or ford swapable situation... if you know what I mean.
Sounds like the brake drums have been turned too much. Do these brakes have "mechanical" adjusters? If so, are they properly adjusted out?
X2 rusty-dusty. Your wheel cylinders are being over- extended, allowing the pistons to pop out. Could also be improper parts somewhere in brake assembly. I think later Checkers were mostly GM parts - but I'm sure they are shared with something regardless!
I haven't looked at the car yet but these are all things I will look at when I do. That makes total sense though if they are having to expand too far then the pistons would be popping out of the housing... I will definitely look into this.
I've had my 72 Checker wagon for 32 years, but it has relatively low miles, only a couple hundred thousand so far. Never had a brake problem. Have not heard of the failure you described. My Checker's brakes are all GM, other years and other build sheets may vary. I doubt that the blown wheel cylinders are Checker specific. First, Identify the manufacturer of the brakes. Armed with the knowledge of who built the brakes, probably GM as well, you should be able to diagnose the cylinder failure. There really isn't any difference in the design of Checker brakes versus most American passenger cars that I am aware of. Dale K Cleveland OH
A 65 Marathon probably still used the '59 ford brake parts... Probably... They [checker] only built the bodies, and they bought parts from all of the big 3. Many times, if they got a good deal on a couple thousand end of run parts, they would use them for years and years. Back in the early 90's, I went thru a checker stage. Owned two of them, and honestly, I think they were the most fun of all the cars I've ever owned. Search on the web for a guy named Andy Taylor... No, not a joke, that's his real name. He's a wealth of checker knowledge. The last time I talked to him, he was in the process of writing a book that was supposed to have ALL the technical and interchange data from every model Checker ever made. Based on the knowledge he shared with me, I'll bet his book [if he ever wrote it] is a must have for any Checker fan.
I just did a quick google. Andy [or Andrew] Taylor appears to have a facebook page about the Marathon. Looks like you got to join the page to access the info, but at least it's a start...
It all depends on the year of Checker. Joe Pollard is another resource - he has the only all checker junk yard that I know of. I have struggled to keep my sixties vintage Checkers in drum brakes. Checker used '57 Ford A-frames, Studebaker steering columns and drums, IH tailgate window crank assemblies, Chevy motors and Borg Warner transmissions in my '66 and '68 models. I guess when you make only 5000 cars per year you like to scoop up production overruns from much much bigger producers (i believe Studebaker made 300,000 cars in '63 - just before closing up shop in South Bend, IN). A Checker is sort of like loveable mongrel dogs - the pedigree may be dubious but it makes for a fine family pet.
O'Reilly's compatibility chart (rears here) http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/BHH1/WC19238.oap?pt=01324&ppt=C0066 show the front wheel cylinders matching some Packard and Studebakers while the rears match some Chevy an GMC vans and some Packards and Studebakers. I'm like the others in that most likely it is due to drums that are turned too much oversize or mismatched pieces.
Studebaker's best years were '50-'51 where they met or exceeded 300,000, but they barely hit 70,000 in '63, and much less in the short '64 South Bend production.
Any chance a "Hollender's Interchange Manual" (may have spelled it wrong) would tell you what parts you need? You might find one of these at a junk yard or in the library. The old ones may still be in print. I bought one when I was working on a '32 Chrysler in the nineties. Charlie Stephens
In the early '60's, a friend's parents bought a new Checker. I think this was about the time they first offered a civilian model...? Anyway, it came with its own interchange list of make-and-model interchange for all the commonly serviced parts. That would be a hard piece of paper to find now, but surely some Checker nut out there has it all scoped out!
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