Cushman/Textron/Steiner Hawk brake parts

mrblanche

I have a 1999 Cushman/Textron/Steiner Hawk Turf, originally electric. I'm having a terrible time finding brake parts for it, specifically the master and wheel cylinders. Anyone have any good suggestions, other than paying more for these parts than I paid for the cart?

BGW

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CharleyL

I'm not certain that your brakes are the same as my 1987 Cushman Truckster, but I found an identical new master cylinder on the shelf at my local forklift dealer and paid less than 1/2 of what they were selling for on the internet. I also found that the brake wheel cylinders were almost identical to 1970's Ford F-100 pickup wheel cylinders and the Ford cylinder rebuild kits worked perfectly for rebuilding the Cushman wheel cylinders. The Ford wheel cylinder itself is almost identical, except that it has a bump in the outside of the casting that must be ground off if you want to use it on a Cushman. The same forklift dealer got me new bonded brake shoes for $10 per shoe and was able to get Keihin carburetor parts for me too.

Back when Cushman Industrial vehicles were in use it's the forklift shops that maintained them. My era Cushman had many parts used to make it that were actually automotive parts, and although there doesn't seem to be a cross reference for them, I was able to buy flexible brake lines, steering ball joints, etc. by taking my broken part into an auto parts store and they matched it with something on their shelf. The flexible brake line between the chassis and front axle of my Truckster is the same as the one used on a 1968 Dodge B-100 van. Fortunately, the auto parts store had a guy working there who remembered seeing many of these parts and was able to help find them on the shelf without using the computer cross reference that most of the younger guys have to use, since they have never even seen many of the parts that are inside the boxes.

If you can be more specific about what you need, maybe I can help further. Pictures help too. Actually, your Hawk is new enough that an Ez-Go Dealer might be able to help you with parts that you need. Worth checking.

Charley

mrblanche

I'm having a struggle with the whole brake deal. The master cylinder actually appears to be a part intended as a clutch master cylinder. The manufacturer is Nissin. It says "NISSIN 3/4" on one side of it, and "8 D 2" on the other, which I suspect may be a manufacture date. It appears to be a BK33-300, available for $105 at Vintage Golf Car Parts.

They also list the wheel cylinder #886371 for this application, but that won't work...the bleeder screw is below, rather than above the inlet. They also list the #807343, but that doesn't seem to be available any more. They also list their number as BK33-340. But they want $50 for each one.

CharleyL

Take a wheel cylinder and your master cylinder into an auto parts store and see if they can find a match for it. If you fail there, go to a forklift/industrial equipment shop and see if they can help you. For the auto parts shop, try to find a guy working there who has been in the business for quite a while, not the young kid at the counter who usually can't find a tail light bulb without looking it up on the computer.

My local O Riley's has an older white haired guy who looks at what I bring in and in a few minutes finds me the matching part on the shelf. Cushman didn't make brake parts or steering ball joints. Even the windshield wiper. Cushman bought them from the auto parts manufacturers. The trouble is that the records for where these all came from is gone, so there is no cross reference of the Cushman number to them.

This isn't as easy as buying parts for your 3 year old Chevrolet car. It takes some searching, but it's likely still out there on the shelf some place. When I failed at finding what I needed at the auto parts stores, my next stop was the forklift guys. They even found a forklift fuel gauge sender that would work for me, but I had to bend the float wire to make the gauge read correctly. It was supposedly for a gas engine forklift, but it worked, and they had one on the shelf in a very dusty box just waiting for me. He couldn't even find a price for it, so he gave it to me.

I agree that my brake master cylinder looks more like a clutch cylinder, but I couldn't find one like it through the auto parts stores. Again, the forklift guys had an identical, but new and very dusty one on the shelf. They sold it to me for $35, way less than one like it was available through Ebay. It was also new, and I doubt that the one on Ebay really was. On Ebay they wanted $118 for it too.

The brake system used in these Cushman Trucksters uses DOT3 brake fluid. Unfortunately this brake fluid is alcohol based, so it readily absorbs moisture from the air that gets into the master cylinder through the open vent hole, just like dry gas does from gasoline when added to the gas tank. Dry gas is nothing but high priced denatured alcohol. Water and gasoline don't mix, but water and alcohol does, and then the alcohol and gasoline mix and you end up burning the water that would not mix with the gasoline before adding the alcohol.

When enough water has been absorbed into the DOT3 brake fluid, it begins rusting the brake system from the inside out. New cars have the same brake fluid, but the master cylinders now have a rubber bellows seal between the vent hole in the cap and the brake fluid chamber. This keeps the moisture and the brake fluid separated, so no rust occurs in the brake system.

I tried hard to find a more modern brake master cylinder that had this bellows seal, but failed to find anything that would fit without a major sheet metal modification of my truckster, so I finally settled on getting an identical replacement to the original master cylinder, and resigned myself to just drain all of the brake fluid every couple of years and replace it with new DOT3 fluid.

There is a silicone based brake fluid that is supposed to be compatible with the rubber brake parts, but it is not at all compatible with DOT3 brake fluid, so every drop of the DOT3 fluid would have to be removed before installing the silicone brake fluid. It wasn't worth it for me. Changing the fluid every few years is much easier and not very expensive.

www.directparts.com can sell me new original wheel cylinders for about $23 complete with the internal spring, rubber piston parts, and caps that are identical to my original Cushman wheel cylinders. When you can't find what you need locally, call them or send an email with your needs. I was told that when the Cushman factory closed, they bought all of the Cushman steering, motor, and drive train parts. I know that they still sell new OMC 22 hp engine short blocks. Not cheap at $1500 when I last checked, but still available.

I hope this all helps too.

Charley

Dixon Walsh

Nice info to know, and the ford truck cross reference parts