1938 P6 leaking wheel cylinder

[Don St Peter]

I went through the leaky cyl. process about three times. After the 4th try I decided to live with it for a bit and the leaking past the wheel cylinder problem went away after a short time. Things seating in I guess. I used DOT 5 and am happy to date.
Don

[John Hendricks]

this is just a guess----did u replace the flex hoses?  perhaps a bit of hose material is getting intothe cylinder when u bleed the system. ???

[rml127]

        It's definately leaking past the seal. I bought the parts from Bernbaums so I called them to see if the new wheel cylinder could be bad. He told me it wasn't and he thought the drum was out of spec. I don't have a measurement to know for sure but it doesn't look like it's too thin. I turned hundreds and hundreds of drums and rotors in my youth at a parts store and my drums don't look bad to me at all.

[my33ply]

Are you sure the wheel cylinder is leaking and not the line or it's fittings? ???

[rml127]

When I rebuilt it I honed it out. It still leaked so I bought a new wheel cylinder and that one leaks too. 

[Andy Wylie]

The bore of the cylinder is most likely corroded and cutting the seal in which case you'll need to replace it or have it sleeved.

[rml127]

  Hello, I just found this website and I love it. I wish I found this 5 years ago. I am the proud owner of a 1938 plymouth P6 4 door with 42,000 original miles. The car is very nice and very original. I bought it 5 years ago and the only work it needed was a new water pump and spark plugs. I  decided to do some work to the brakes a couple of years ago when I noticed the passenger side front wheel cylinder was leaking. I bought 4 wheel cylinder kits and rebuilt all of them. I also completely flushed all of the old brake fluid out. Everything worked great and it stopped much better but then I noticed the same wheel cylinder leaking again. I ordered a brand new one and replaced it and thought life would be good, but, the new one leaks too. I called the company and they told me the wheel cylinder could not be bad. I would love to hear someones thoughts on what could be wrong.