This is not a particularly difficult job, but you will end up with a lot of parts lying around when everything is apart.
The wheel has to come off, obviously. I was a little surprised to remember that the wheel bearings hold the drum on. My bearings were recently repacked, and still looked good:Next the springs and brake pads come out. A little odd that one shoe has two connectors, the other only one.The adjusting cable on this wheel was not connected for some reason. Don’t know if that’s because the wheel cylinder failed or not.The brake line needs to be disconnected. It unscrews, then there’s a clip to pull out.The manual says to only remove the line from the car, not the cylinder, but I needed to take it completely off to get access to the bolts behind the plate.The bolts holding the cylinder to the plate are not accessible with the plate still in place. You’ll need big wrenches (or strong arms) to get those nuts moving. Here’s what it looks like when everything is off the car. (The car is supported on a jack stand. The jack is to compress the suspension a bit so I could get a socket on the last nut.)With the backing plate on the bench, removing the cylinder is a cinch.Here’s the cylinder off the plate.This is what mine looked like inside. Bad huh? They probably all look like this. Now there’s a thought.The wheel cylinder, taken apart. I will throw this away and get a brand new one.
Those I got over the counter at the local parts store looked very similar to those on the car, which were probably original. Thunderbird specialty shops, like Bird Nest, might have exact replicas.
Do you know if you can buy a replacement cylinder as original Ford design.
Those I got over the counter at the local parts store looked very similar to those on the car, which were probably original. Thunderbird specialty shops, like Bird Nest, might have exact replicas.