Drum, Discs, Spindles, oh my...

[Robbie]

Recently I've attempted to replace the front drum shoes of my t-bucket. I spent a good amount of time cleaning up the drums after discovering the both wheel cylinders in the front were leaking and beyond repair.
Now, I'm not the first owner of the t-bucket and contacting the builder is not an option. I was told that my front brakes were from a 1940 Ford truck. Sadly, doing the measurement, my drum is 10" by 2" which doesn't appear to exist for Ford. I could still get the cores relined and hope the new cylinders that are coming work, but now I'm thinking of converting to disc brakes. I've spent $200 on parts for my drums, why not pay the extra $100 bucks for a speedway motors disc kit. The problem is that now that I realize I don't know if my brakes are Ford or not, I have no idea what spindles I have. Anyone have any ideas or thoughts?

 

[butch27]

Put up a picture and we can probably identify them. Also Speedway catalog has drawings of spindles.

 

[bigblk1177]

Post some pics and someone will probably know what they are. Right now it would be a shot in the dark. Disc brakes would be a nice upgrade.

 

[Robbie]

Here are photos of the brake and spindle. Extra points for whoever can tell me what brakes I have.

 

[bigblk1177]

I have no idea what spindle setup that is. It is not a self energizing style of drum brake. So I would say its probably something from the early '40s. May be an early GM auto. I'm sure someone here will know.

 

[butch27]

Well it doesn't look like early Ford or mid 50s Chevy OR Econoline.?? Got me.

 

[Robbie]

Yeah, that's been my problem, no one around my area knows what they are either. It's an interesting mystery, but Spring is approaching and I gotta get it out the garage door soon!

 

[Robbie]

I got a message that it could be early Mopar. Looking into it now...

 

[Francis Blake]

The brakes look exactly like the ones on my first car a1940 Plymouth.

 

[choppedtop]

Do a google search on early mopar spindles in the image section. They look like mopar with 2" drop.
Lee

 

[Robbie]

Thanks Francis and Choppedtop. I did a lot of research and agree that they brakes are from some sort of 1937-40s Dodge Plymouth. I did google Mopar spindles and found some that looked similar, but I haven't found a match. Did you see a match Choppedtop? Send me a link if you did. I think you're right that it's Mopar, but I also haven't been able to find images on early Dodge Plymouth spindles.

How easy or possible is it to keep the spindles I have and attach disc brakes? I'm not sure how the original builder even did this. According to his hand written list of parts, he used a front axle from a 28-34 Ford and king pins from a 63 Econaline Van. It's really odd sounding to me...

 

[Robbie]

Just found this at http://1937dodge.blogspot.com/
It's not 100%, but really close. Still interested in looking for disc brake ideas from the post I put up a few minutes before this one.

 

[Robbie]

Alright folks, I'm starting to run out of ideas. Speedway Motor techs have no idea what the spindle is. At this point, I'm either going to re-attempt to get the correct parts for these dodge brakes, or I'm going to put new spindles on (to Ford or Chevy then buy a disc kit from speedway). Anyone know much about replacing spindles and what problems I'll run into?

 

[RPM]

Google 37 dodge disc brake kits. There are a lot of kits out there. Better have some deep pockets for them. Spindles don't interchange from different manufactures with out a LOT of machine work.

 

[fluidfloyd]

Alright folks, I'm starting to run out of ideas. Speedway Motor techs have no idea what the spindle is. At this point, I'm either going to re-attempt to get the correct parts for these dodge brakes, or I'm going to put new spindles on (to Ford or Chevy then buy a disc kit from speedway). Anyone know much about replacing spindles and what problems I'll run into?

Robbie,

Try some of these links. Maybe the can help you out. Good Luck.

George

Try this link to Engineered Components.
http://www.ecihotrodbrakes.com/dodge_plymouth_discbrake_conversions.html

Street Rods, Parts & Memorabilia
http://www.srpmstreetrods.com/srpm/...-kits-ff8081813238682a01324f9c438f134f-c.html

Andy Bernbaum Auto Parts, NOS and new disc brake conversions.
http://www.oldmoparts.com/parts-service-brakes.aspx

 

[Robbie]

Thanks, those links are amazing. I've been to the Andy Bernbaum website and have sent them some emails. I haven't gotten anything back from them. It looks like I should be able to do a rebuild using that website. The other two websites look strong for turning to disc brakes. I think there is some light starting to show.

In the meantime, I've been trying to get my kingpin out so I could measure it and find out if it really is from a 63 Econoline (which I find hard to believe if I have dodge brakes and a 28-34 ford front axle). Sadly, I haven't been able to pull the kingpin out. It's in there pretty good...

 

[butch27]

I'm using '63 Econoline spindles and they don't look like that. ??

 

[bobs66440]

I buy a lot of parts from my local speed shop that's been there since 1967. Great guys. They are really expensive compared to the 'net for the same parts though. Perfect example is, I just called them about an Edelbrock carb rebuild kit. They have it for $36 plus tax plus the drive. On ebay it's $20 shipped to my door. That's a substantial difference, but the expensive one is Edelbrock brand. The other is no-name, but probably the same stuff. I've used it before and it works fine.

 

[Robbie]

Agreed Butch27, there's no way they're Econoline Spindles, but supposedly the kingpins are. I cannot imagine that someone made some sort of converted spindle from Ford axle/king pin to dodge brakes.

 

[Robbie]

Just found the spindles! Thanks to ebay. It's a Mopar 1937-42 spindle that fits fits 1937 Desoto, Dodge and Chrysler 6, also fits 1937-1938-1939-1940-1941-1942 Plymouth. 666408, 681375

Ok, confirming that the drums and spindles are made for dodge, I'm now wondering if my kingpins and front axle is dodge as well...