Wheel cylinder or hub seal?

[Faulkner34]

Hello everyone. Subsequent to my last post I purchased the manual and have been going through the brakes on my '73 SWB Series 3.

I have taken the drums and shoes off the wheels and noted a lot of oil lining the shoes and the entire area that would be enclosed by the drums. My initial thought was that the wheel cylinders were bad and need replaced. However, I read a couple posts on this site about hub seal leaks and am now wondering if that is the culprit.

My question is how do I distinguish between the wheel cylinders vs the hub seal in fixing this? Should i just replace both? I included a few pictures hoping someone may be able to point me in the right direction. I appreciate any suggestions!

[NC_Mule]

I just replaced a bad hub seal. I had oil all over the place, was the inside of your wheel covered in oil? In my experience a leaky hub seal tends to throw oil over everything because the diff holds so much oil a lot can leak out. You don't have as much brake fluid to leak out so it doesn't make as big of a mess. You can put a hub seal repair off for a long time but you run out of brake fluid pretty fast. Pull those rubber boots back on the brake cylinder and see what you find. Have you noticed a loss of brake fluid at the reservior or soft brakes?
pb

[Faulkner34]

Thanks for the reply. The inside of the wheel on the front passenger side was definitely covered in oil - probably 1/4 inch thick in places by the swivel ball and the back side of the brake panel. The rear passenger side (which is the one in the pictures) didn't have near as much oil on the rear side of the brake panel, but as you can see when looking at the picture of the lower part of the shoes there is quite a bit of oil. I haven't noticed a loss of brake fluid at the reservoir but haven't been looking. As for soft brakes - with the brake pedal to the floor it take 150 feet to stop on flat pavement.

[SafeAirOne]

Just have a look at the rubber boot on each end of the wheel cylinder. Peel it back and check for evidence of leakage. Is it wet on the inside? Is it wet on the bottom, where leakage makes itself evident as it drips out of the boots?

My initial impression, by looking at the 1st pic is that it isn't the wheel cylinder because the rubber boot looks dry on the bottom, but I can't thoroughly examine them like you can, either.

[NC_Mule]

Pull those boots back on that wheel cylinder and see if you find brake fluid. If the boots are in good shape and in the right position they should seal out any oil coming from the hub seal. So if you find fluid behind the boot then you have a cylinder leak. If you're unsure or find a very little amount, clean the pistons and boots with brake cleaner and hit them with air. Everything should be dry. Reinstall the boots/drum/wheel and take it for a spin. Come back take everything apart and look behind the boots for a leak. You might even get by with putting the drum back on and pumping the brakes. That might be the safe way, 150ft to stop is bad.
pb

[SafeAirOne]

That might be the safe way, 150ft to stop is bad.

Either that or it's GREAT! There's no way to make any accurate determination with the amount of information he provided--a critical bit of information is absent.