When I took my deuce on its first trip out of hibernation this year, I was rewarded with brakes locking up on my way back home. So after inspecting things, I found out that my master cylinder had rusty sludge in it and likely that had plugged up the compensating port in the master cylinder, causing my issues. So, this week I just finished up replacing the master cylinder with a new one (the old one had rust in the bore that wouldn't have honed out) and putting a rebuild kit in the air pack for good measure.
It's probably worth checking in that reservoir once in a while even if you have a remote reservoir like I do. I drained and refilled the entire brake system in this truck in late 2019 when I last repacked wheel bearings and checked wheel cylinders but this stuff must have been in there the whole time. I guess it's the fun of having an older truck!
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I got lucky and the air pack was in good shape inside other than a little sludge that had worked its way down from the master cylinder. All the bores were in great shape and the rebuild was easy. I got the rebuild kit from Big Mike's, and it had everything but the o-ring that goes between the two halves of the air piston. The gasket on the back of the air cylinder was a little wider than the original and needed some trimming around the 6 studs, but those are minor complaints.
Today's test drive was much less eventful!
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