The Brakes [John]

The brakes were bad. We found the master cylinder was full of debris, had weak seals and a nonexistent boot. We rebuilt it first, then pulled off a front wheel and drum. These cars have two single-acting cylinders on the front brakes, and both of these were dripping fluid. The shoes have a good amount of lining on them, but they were wet with brake fluid. There is a variety of advice on how to deal with this on the web, including some that recommends waiting until your wife isn't home, pulling the shoes and baking them in a hot oven "until they quit smoking." We tried a less agressive approach: spraying thoroughly with brake cleaner, wiping them off, and repeating. They look much better, and we will see how they work in a week or two. One of the shoe retractor springs was broken, but we found one in the NAPA catalog that had similar measurements to replace it.
Next was the driver's side rear drum. Another Chrysler innovation was to rivet the rear drums to the week hub, which in turn fits a keyed taper on the axle shaft. We located a puller for the job and ordered it, and with it the drum came off without too much fuss. Phil put the axle nut back on the axle before he applied the puller. This is recommended to protect the axle from spreading under the pointed end of the puller and to catch the drum when the taper suddenly breaks free. Phil says he was very glad he remembered to put the nut back on. We actually wound up with two of these pullers, and will be glad to part with one of them.

Heavy duty hub puller

The rear drum brakes have a single, double-acting cylinder. Although the cylinder was dry, these shoes were wet too. Stepping on the brake pedal produced no fluid at the rear cylinder. Eventually we found that the short hose that connects the frame-mounted brake line to the Y-connector on the axle was packed full and would pass no air or fluid. Replacing the hose cured that, and the rear wheel assembly is now back together and ready for bleeding and adjustment next weekend, when we hope to rebuild the remaining two weeks.