Spindle mounts on early Ford spindles

[kookie2007]

I have a Speedway front axle with early Ford spindles and picked up a set of 16" wire spoke wheels with disc brake rotors installed. I don't know who made the wheels. The rotors measure 11.5" x 3/8" and are held in place on the hubs with 5 socket head bolts. The inner and outer bearings both fit the spindle properly as does the seal. The problem I'm having is when they are installed on the spindles, the socket head bolts that hold the rotors on interfere with the bolts that hold the steering arms on the spindles. Also, when the spindle nuts are installed they seem to be going on about 1/8" further than what seems to be correct as the cotter pin hole is almost out to the top of the "castle" nut. The other problem is the hub cap will not go all the way into position because it hits the end of the spindle.

I suspected I need a spacer on the spindle behind the inner bearing about 1/8" thick to correct the problem. As a "stab in the dark" I ordered the Hydraulic brake adapter kit from speedway hoping that the bearing spacer in the kit would work. It is about .3 inches thick and way too much to solve my problem. I'm looking for some wisdom from someone who has "been there done that" any help?

 

[choppedtop]

Some pictures might help for us to see what exactly is the problem. What is the new spacer made of?
Lee

 

[2old2fast]

AFA the spindle nut/spindle length you could re-drill the spindle and re-drill for the cotter key....AFA the bolts hitting , could you counter-sink the holes and use flat-head allens ?? OR , have a machine shop make you an appropriate spacer..
dave

 

[T-Test]

I bought the S/W brake kit with GM calipers to fit '40 Ford spindles and it came with bearings and a spacer. I copied them ever since using s/s for the spacer//up build of the spindle for the exchanged bearings to fit the GM calipers. They are .003 under sized and are press fit onto spindles. You can make a spacer like this but not upsize if the correct bearings fit your spindles and s/s will work fine as long as you get the right inner seal to fit the outside diameter. Good luck, or you can call Wintech and inquire about their setups. I would go a bit thicker to 3/8" to make sure the caliper bolts won't hit the spindle bosses/mounting bracket for caliper if a bearing goes out . Don't want a wheel lockup or spindle breaking at speed.

 

[kookie2007]

I'm hoping to find a spacer somewhere that will be the right thickness, but if that doesn't happen I'll take the ones from this kit to a machine shop and see if they can mill them down to size.
Thanks for the input guys

 

[RPM]

How thick do these shims have to be?

 

[kookie2007]

They need to have the same inside diameter as the inner bearing and outside diameter as the grease seal area of the spindle and need to move the entire hub out 1/8" to no more than 3/16"

 

[kookie2007]

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[kookie2007]

 

[kookie2007]

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[kookie2007]

 

[RPM]

Will the seal have ride on this shim?

 

[choppedtop]

You could counter sink the holes for the steering arm bolts, and use counter sunk allen bolts. I had almost the same problem on my Wilwood brake setup. You still would need the spacer, but that is an easy fix. What is the OD and ID of the spacers you need?

 

[kookie2007]

I ordered some button head bolts for the steering arms but that will only solve 1/2 the problem. The cap still wont go all the way on without moving the hub out about 1/8". Inside measurement would be about 1.19" and outside would be about 1.57". I don't want to do any modifications to the spindles because if I decide to go with standard rotors and steel wheels I don't want to buy another set of spindles.
Ron, as far as I can tell, the seal may end up riding on the spacer. Pretty hard to tell where it's at right now.

 

[choppedtop]

Mark the seal area on the spindle with a crayon, install the hub, rotate back and forth to see where it rides.

 

[kookie2007]

I took those spacers I got from speedway to the machine shop along with one of the spindles to get them turned down to fit. We'll see how that works out and go from there. Next I'll have to rework the caliper brackets to compensate for that 1/8" .....one step at a time I guess

 

[kookie2007]

Got the spacers cut and they fixed the clearance problem. Now on to brainstorming an easy fix to move the brake calipers out 1/8". Meanwhile, I'll work on fitting the rear radius rod brackets to the axle housing.
Thanks for all the input guys!