I have recentlly disassembled my 56 f-250 and am redoing the brakes. for the front drums there is just a one sided cylinder connected to the pads, but in all the catalogs i have looked at for parts it shows that there should be a double sided cylinder. i was wondering if anyone knows if this was an upgrade to a later version of brakes. thanks for any help you can give me.
-Josh

 

Josh,

I am doing a frame-off restore on my '56 F-250 and I just did the brakes. The front cylinders are single-acting with part numbers:

1D-2062 left-front brake wheel cylinder
1D-2061 right-front brake wheel cylinder

I'm about as certain as I can be that this is the original setup for the whole model year and there were no double-acting wheel cylinders installed at the factory on any F-250.

I got my cylinders (and everything else for the brake job) from Joblot Automotive (joblot@joblotauto.com) for $28.95 each. Joblot has a lot of items for Ford trucks bigger than the F1/F-100. I'm sure there are probably other vendors that have them as well.

It's interesting that all four wheel cylinders are different! Ford really had a way of coming up with individual parts for everything, didn't they.

If you have any other questions specific to the '56 F-250 I'd love to chat off-line. I've been through lot's of interesting work already on the frame and running gear and I have quite a way to go until it's done. I have quite a few detailed photos (over 400) if you need info on how things are supposed to be on the original. E-mail me at ghartman@woh.rr.com if you are interested.

George