1962 Catalina wheel cylinder removal
 

Well, it's time to replace my left front wheel cylinder and the front bolt is in a very tight spot.

It looks like I might be able to grind the thickness of a 1/2" box-end wrench skinnier to get it to fit in there.

Is this how most people do it, or do most people remove the whole backing plate and then do it on the bench?

It's been awhile but as I recall I unbolted the backing plates from the spindles and then removed the wheel cylinders. The car was on a two post lift. Removing the backing plates also made it possible to clean off the fifty years of crud underneath and between everything and then paint it. I didn't take a picture of the back side I don't know why.

On my 63 Bonneville, I loosened the backing plate until I had enough room to get to the wheel cylinder bolt. I did not have to totally remove the backing plate.

James Q

Thanks, this worked great and I didn't have to modify a wrench to do it.

Just in case someone searches for this subject in the future, I will leave the steps:

Remove brake components(shoes, springs, adjusters, pins)
Remove anchor pin guide plate(the plate at the top behind the uppermost springs)
Disconnect hard brake line from soft/flex line (7/16" on hard line, 5/8" on soft line)
Remove soft/flex line (5/8")
Loosen backing plate bolts (as much as you need) (5/8" at the bottom and 13/16" at the top)
Remove wheel cylinder bolts (1/2") (Use a 12-point 1/2" box end wrench on the front bolt)
Remove wheel cylinder (May need to pry with screwdriver to break it loose)

Reassembly is in the opposite order. Start the frontmost wheel cylinder bolt first, then put in the rear one.