66 C20 HO52 rear end questions

[earl84]

Long time, very intense lurker on this amazing board, first time poster. So many great guys and girls on here and so much knowledge and the way it is freely shared is awesome.
I finally took the plunge and bought a project truck. It is a semi-decent condition 66 C20 fleetside long bed truck with a smooth running 350, not sure of the transmission, but it's a 4 speed with granny low. The brakes are not working at all. I just got it home today on the tow truck and started looking at a few things. I should have got some pictures, dang it. Now it's cleaned up on the outside, inside tomorrow. Hoping to catch the mouse I saw tonight, I set a few traps.
Master cylinder is completely dry, so maybe that's all it is, but thought it would make sense to look at all 4 wheels. Pulled the front drums and it looks like the wheel cylinders are shot on both sides, lots of dried up fluid mess in there. Wanted to pull the back and take a look also, but not real sure on how difficult it is to pull the axles back there. Seems sort of straight forward, just remove the 8 outer bolts and pull the axles out. I have never done this before, so I guess the first question (after all this rambling) is what do I need to watch out for? Do I just slide the axles out, take off the nut holding on the hub and then get to the brakes? Then repair the brakes and slide it all back in? Is anything in the differential gonna fall apart? Do I need to make sure it goes back in exactly the same position or just sorta push and turn until it slides into place?
I am kind of thinking of just buying all new drums, wheel cylinders, hardware kit, rubber lines, using the old steel lines, and while I am at it doing the splitting of the lines using a new master cylinder with front and rear ports as written up by ChiefRocka using a 67 C10 master cylinder and new lines. It's amazing how inexpensive this stuff is.
My thought with the truck is to just get it on the road and enjoy it for a little while and then start modifying it a little into a Home Depot hauler.
Can anyone help me with the axle questions? Any thoughts on the brake parts replacement?

[earl84]

Oops, gotta update my profile, I am now in Forney, TX, just east of Dallas.

[Captainfab]

Yes, you can just remove the 8 bolts on the axle flange and slide the axles out. Nothing inside the differential will fall apart. Then just remove the spindle nut, and slide the hub and drum off. I would at least replace the inner hub seal, before you reassemble.

[earl84]

Thanks, CaptainFab, I appreciate the info. Gonna just have to bite the bullet and dive in to this thing. Will have to get it all apart and take it to NAPA and get the right seal and everything. Hopefully I won't find out that there is anything else wrong, but when I spin it by hand, everything sounds smooth and pretty tight.

[Captainfab]

Hopefully you don't need the front pinion bearing. Those are $250.00+, last I heard.

[b.eddy's72]

Hey Earl if the brakes are dry there is prob a good reason why and it might just be the leaking cylinders but I would check you brake lines to make sure they didnt get condinsation inside and start rusting causing greater problems down the road or cause some new parts to fail. Thats just a suggestion Sir.

[earl84]

Thanks to all. I got the axles pulled and put back in, not difficult at all, but the info from CaptainFab gave me confidence to do it. Got to the brakes and went to NAPA and ordered pretty much all new parts. b.eddys72, good thoughts. I think maybe I will just replace the brake lines as well, it's all fairly cheap insurance for the most important part of the truck.

[earl84]

Oh and the front pinion bearing appears to be alright, thankfully. Everything seems pretty tight in there. Counted the teeth and looked for stamping on the ring gear, found out for sure I have 4.10 gears, so that's good news, too.