Technical Up grade stock 1940 Ford rear drum brakes

Wrenching on a 1939 Ford Coupe with Columbia 2 speed and stock 1940 rear drum brakes. Front has been converted to F-150 disk to keep the 5 on 5 1/2 bolt circle. Any cost effective ideas to upgrade the rear stock drum brakes? I see where F-100 brakes are added to the front axle - just thinking about more modern rear drums that are not expensive.

 

Rear drums that are wide for that Columbia rear are very scarce.

 

With the taper and keway on the axle, i would have thought options are very limited.

 

In the first post he mentioned that the fronts were 5 on 5 1/2 so I assume that is what he will want for the rear. I would go the Lincoln brakes on the rear or try it out and see if the '39 brakes are enough given that most of the braking is done with the front.

Charlie Stephens

 

Repro Lincoln style backing plates run at least $500 or more with the parking brake in them. Real Lincolns are around the same price. Should be able to reuse the stock drums.

 

I sold some F1 brakes and was trying to find him some cheap drums. I found that 68 pick up rear drums were very close. I would try to use the F1/F-100 front backing plates and use the later drums and brake hardwear. It all depends on the flange position on the hub if it would work. The F1/F100 drums are shorter at 3.5 vs a 40 at 3.75. Compensating is the F100 backing plate is shallower so needs a shorter drum. Another problem is the pilot diameters are different. A 40 is 3.25 and the F100 is 2.87. A ring tacked to the hub would fix that. It may be worth getting some parts and mocking it up.
F1 drivers should also check out the later drums. The pilot diameters are correct.

 

I am keeping 5 on 5.5 bolt circle on both front and rear - to match the Columbia 2 speed rear. Else - I would save my self a lot of expense and trouble and go with 5 on 4.5 bolt circle like my other 2 1939 Fords have. This was my Dad's old high school hot rod - in the late 1950's it had a 371 Olds J-2 with 3 2v carbs and mated to the 1939 stock transmission. We have old 39 transmission cases laying around from the J-2 and drag racing. The 4.44 gear in the Columbia has not broke - the weak link was the transmissions. Now this car has a 327 Chevy and Muncie 4 speed and open drive shaft with early chevy truck trailing arms and buggy spring front and back. I put the F150 disk brake kit on the front about 15 years ago when all the brakes dried up from setting in a garage so long. The disk brakes on the front end really work well. I did not think about the taper drums as a limitation - perhaps a really good rebuild on the stock rear will do the trick. I grew up with this car and want to keep as period correct as possible - but for safety - I am fine with the disk brakes on the front - this kit was a bolt on and a huge improvement over stock drum brakes.

 

The 68 F150 drums are 5.5 bolt circle and would go on your 40 hubs by using a centering ring.
I worked on this some more.
I put a 40 drum on a 40 backing plate and a F1 drum on a F1 backing plate. The distaance from the back of the backing plate to the face of the drum is the same at 3.25. The later drums should be just fine with the addition of a centering ring on the 40 hub.

 

One thought - a way to upgrade the shoes and existing backing plate - to adapt self energizing brakes vs stock.

 

It's been done. Only place I can direct you to look right now is Bass in Texas, but there have been others on the HAMB that have posted threads. See if you can find with a search.

 

I was looking at the latest Speedway Automotive info - they list a backing plate and self - energized brake kit for stock type early Ford rear ends - any one used it? Opinions ?

 

I know this quote is 2 years old but maybe someone has tried the brakes since. I am considering them. Several other companies sell them as well. I could be wrong but there is probably one manufacturer/supplier to the sellers.

Thanks

 

I haven’t tried the drum brake kit you mentioned but I’ve used several brake conversion kits from Speedway and they all worked fine. I was impressed by how complete they are, every little part and washer was included.


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Good to bring back up.....for any one to chime in with their experience......

 

I am considering upgrading the front brakes on my '40 pickup using the Speedway 5.5" kit but they claim that you can't use stock wheels. I don't want to change wheels so I haven't moved forward yet.