Sorry, I tried to post a reply yesterday, but I guess it never made it through. Maybe the pictures I attached were too large.

Thank you all for the advice. I got some Denatured Alcohol today and am going to try cleaning it up with that. I'm hoping the cylinder will clean up good and then I'll get new "guts" for it. Otherwise, I'll just have to get a new cylinder. Planning on getting a working cylinder back in place and then moving on to checking the wheel cylinders.

Quote Originally Posted by gmwillys View Post
One thing to keep in mind when rebuilding your brake components is to invest in a brake hone to dress up the internal surfaces. This will clean up and true up the piston sealing surface.
Thanks for the hone suggestion. It mentions that in the Motor's Auto Repair Manual. Sounds like I should probably do that.

Quote Originally Posted by LarrBeard View Post
A personal note: From 1965 when I started driving the '48 until it went into hibernation for 35 years, I had limped along with marginal brakes. The drums were turned way oversize and the bores were corroded; so something was always leaking somewhere. A double pump on the brakes was just a way of life to get it stopped.

When we put it back together, one of my first observations was "Dern, it stops now!".

Don't skimp on brakes. We talk about getting our Jeeps to run, but stopping is just as important. As a commercial said a while back "Well, if you do just an OK brake job, something will stop you".

Show us a picture of your Jeepster - an unaltered Jeepster (especially the first generation VJ's) are about as rare as pink unicorns.
Little history on my Jeepster. It was my Grandfather's, who had it for a long time (I believe he rebuilt the engine it in around 50 years ago--rough calculation based on how old my Dad says he was at the time they rebuilt it). I was always interested in it and always took it to the dances in High School. My wife and I actually drove it to prom (we were dating, not married at the time ). So my Grandfather willed it to me. I basically do enough work on it to keep it running because we still like to go for a cruise once in a while, but I haven't done must "restoration" on it. The brakes had been acting a little odd for a while, and when we took it out a couple weekends ago just around town, it was evident something was wrong. When I tried to take the reservoir cap off it was super stuck in place. It ended up breaking, which revealed how sludged up the brake fluid was, which lead to where I am today. Here are a couple pictures of it.

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Finally (sorry for the lengthy post), I found this little piece just sitting in the bottom of reservoir, and I can't figure out what it is. I'm not even completely sure it's part of the brake system. My dad thinks maybe it was attached to the underside of the cap before it broke. Any ideas?

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