I travel a bit, and therefore I like to take care of some things on my truck before they break. So my master cylinder was getting a little long in the tooth, and I decided to just spring for another one since I was putting a new power brake booster on the truck at the same time. So I go to NAPA but all they had were Made in China master cylinders, and I'll never put my life on the line again with Chinese brake parts after a set of Chinese rear-wheel cylinders broke like soda crackers on me about 8 years ago.

So I went with a Cardone-rebuilt M.C., assuming Cardone was still rebuilding them in the U.S. And when I took my old M.C. off I took it apart and man it looks REALLY good inside. So I figured I'll just rebuild it myself and keep it as a spare. But I can't find a kit for it. O'Reillys doesn't have one and neither does Carquest or NAPA. Does anyone know where I can get a kit for my M.C?

 

Cardone is always a crap shoot. I hate that they are so cheap and common. Sometimes they are so common that it is difficult to easily find another brand. I bench test before installing anything that has the Cardone name if it is possible. I've had their alternators and starters fail out of the box.

I don't have a source for a seal kit. Sorry. You may want to go to the GM 1 ton wheel cylinders as long as you are replacing them. They were a direct bolt in on my 00. The lines had to be bent slightly to align. See if they'll fit your 95.

 

Thanks Junk Man. I already put a 2001.5, 3.54, posi rear-end under it with disc brakes. LOVE the 4-wheel discs.

I went with Cardone because I thought they'd be rebuilt in the U.S. I suspect no one is making an M.C. rebuild kit--i can't find one, but I've been surprised before by guys on this site. Maybe someone knows of a kit somewhere out there.

 

Someone makes a kit because there are people putting the masers together.

 

When I serviced my rear drum brakes I purchased 2 Wagner brake cylinders from CarQuest and Wagner has always been a standard for quality. When I got them home, I saw that one was made in USA and one from China. I kind of cursed the Chinese one as I installed it. But when I was installing the USA one, I found that the pistons in it would not retract. They were stuck cold right out of the box. So I took it back to the store and they handed me over another Chinese one. That's all they had left in stock but they've both worked fine for two years and even made it through a panicky road-striped panic stop last year. Go figure.....

 

I would think somebody, somewhere is selling just the kits, but I haven't been able to find any. I'll just keep the old M.C. I cleaned it up and disassembled it, and I'll slather a layer of silicon grease inside it, to protect it against corrosion and stick it on my parts shelf and wait. They'll come on the market sometime I'm hoping.