So I’m taking the front hubs apart on my gasser. It has a 49 or so Chevrolet truck straight axle. Has old discs on it. I’m just checking bearings, using new hardware. Greasing stuff etc. Obviously I’m buying new brakes. It has what looks to me like the super common 11” rotor with big GM calipers. Same type of Chevelle based kit right stuff sells. my question is that there seems to be an extra piece in the hub. As pictured it went castellated nut, large slotted washer, small tapered bearing but then on the tapered bearing. It has this thick billet spacer washer? I don’t know what to make of that. I think it was on the large side of the tapered bearing but I can’t recall for sure. all the bearing kits I see for this type of brakes don’t have them. And as I said I’ve installed basically this same type kit myself before without those. Anyone ever seen that before?
The threads on the spindle probably are not deep enough and they have that as a spacer. bearing, spacer, slotted washer, nut. Maybe !
Okay so the plot thickens. The inner (larger) bearing does not appear to be the standard chevelle bearing. Not sure if this still has the factory spindle. But the inner bearing has a Bower bearing with a PN thats hard to read. Its something like L68148. The L and the "814" Im sure on. The 6 and last 8 could be a 6 8 9 or even a B. I cant find a match on bowers website. I micced the spindle itself where that bearing sits and it appears to be a 1.375 as opposed to the 1.250 muscle era spindle.
A good parts house should be able to ID it,and match one up.You could look at Rock Autos catalog,and check part numbers for late 60"s to mid 70"s GM cars,and see if any numbers look close to what you have.
I’m going to call Bower tomorrow and see if they changed their PNs. I *think* it’s the same width as the chevelle type inner bearing but a bigger inner diameter. Might even take the same outer race. There are 3.750 and 3.77 bearings available. That might bite me.
Why would that be obvious? Is there something wrong with the old brakes? I can understand buying new pads, if the old ones are worn out. But I would not be replacing stuff without a good reason.
Common practice included a very wide range of mix and match, spacers, shims, bushings, brackets, weld..etc.
You said its a 49 Chevy axle with disc brakes? If so it must be some type of aftermarket conversion-no? I put a kit on my 56 F100 which used special spacers to mount later F150 rotors on the 56 axle. Maybe that is why you have a spacer???- part of a kit??
Because the rotors are primarily comprised of rust lol. But you are right. It had disc mounts on them, but only one caliper. Rotors were there, which is nice so I can do what Im doing now, measuring things and all to see what I have, but trust me they arent in useable condition. This was far from a running driving car. Im basically taking a $2000 straight axle project I bought in December and trying to meet you for drag week this year lol. I just test fit a 454 into it, and now Im moving on to setting up a cross steer system and fixing the massive holes that pass for floor pans. And thanks 56 for the Timken search. The L PN is common for them, I shoulda went there. I knocked out the race and got a clear number on it that google searched easier than the bearing itself did. Edit: Got it, after fisding the bearing race number, and with the previous revelation that the last number is a 9. it matches up. https://cad.timken.com/item/all-pro...ings-ts-tapered-single-imperi-2/l68149-l68110 Thats the bearing and the race. Thanks guys, Im sure I will ask more silly stuff as I scramble to make this a real car so I can get it on the track by spring.
Im sure its part of a kit. Dont who knows how long ago. My thought was, usually those kits come with spindles that bolt on to mate it all together. But this may have been from further back before that was common place. Long enough for the rotors to turn to rust anyway. The spacer for sure looks like its purpose built for that type of use. Its not an over the counter washer. Its the same outter and inner diameter as the small bearing to mate to it. I also found this on Speedway when you enter the race PN "Inner bearing cup for 11" GM rotor with '74-'80 Mustang II/Pinto/Bobcat spindles " So maybe they are mustang II spindles. That would certainly track for hot rodder type stuff.
Mustang II spindles won't fit on an axle. But...it is pretty common to modify 49-54 Chevy car spindles to work with MII disk brakes, and there were lots of straight axles made to use those spindles, and lots of kits made to adapt different brakes to MII spindles, that could fit on the spindles you have. Pictures of the whole setup might help us help you figure it out.
sure. I’ll take some after work work tomorrow. Im not a novice, but my other rides are muscle era stuff, so I’m a newbie to this era. im fairly confident the primary components of the system is GM stuff. The rotor looks just like the Right Stuff kit on my Firebird. The small outer bearing is even the same. The calipers have 7” pin spacing. Normal D52 calipers. 11x1” rotors. 4.75 bolt pattern The anomaly’s are the spacer and the larger inner bearing. im also wondering if I should do a kingpin job now. The steering is unhooked. I moved it into the garage by manually turning the wheels. So the spindles do move, but now that I have the wheels off I can’t move themby hand without the tire for extra leverage. Not sure how hard they should be to move. that has the potential to get weird too. If the spindle itself is aftermarket and has odd size bushings or something.
Okay, Ive been staring at at the screen and looking at part numbers all damn day. But I either have it figured out or I almost have it figured out. I have to measure the bolt hole spacing when I get home to see if my spindles are truck or car. Other than that Speedway currently makes a kit to use GM rotors on 49-54 spindles (My car is a 52). HOWEVER, they are all using modified spindles that have been turned down to use a 1.25" diameter inner bearing. My inner bearing bore was 1.377. They also tell you to mark and drill a new hole for the cotter pin. In theory the spacer in mine could have been to reach the factory cotter key hole. So all in all Im assuming this was either an older style kit or something someone years ago just mapped out to use on factory spindles. Im just going to buy all the same parts that were on it and put it back together as it came. My only real concern is that I have no idea if this system was ever actually functional on this car. So it may go all together and Ill find a fatal flaw. But it looks like it will work. edit: minor update. After measuring the spindles I was wrong. It is a truck spindle 4 and 5/16th bolt spacing.
Yeah, I found a picture in a couple of places to identify the difference between a 49-54 car spindle and similar year truck spindle. The car has bolt spacning that us just under 4. The truck is 4-5/16th. After all the looking at bearing measurements until my head swam all day the whole thing is basically this kit https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Deluxe-Disc-Brake-Kit-1947-1959-Chevy-Half-Ton-Pickup,4622.html The only difference is the one on my current axle used a shim spacer on the small end rather than on the big end like that one does. The hell of it is, I had all my parts in a rock auto cart to rebuild the brakes. You dont really save any money. So Im probably just going to buy that kit I just linked and be done with it. Ill wait a couple days and see if Speedway starts on of their $20 off $250 sales or something. In the meantime I ordered a king pin kit to tide me over.
drum brakes have less drag, too. My guess he has different priorities, including being able to stop. Just a guess.
I think drums are usually even lighter than the antiquated discs that are usually involved in the swap kits. Honestly if it had come with complete functioning drums, they would stay on. But it didn’t. And discs are just easier when starting with nothing. Usually cheaper too. the 8.75 rear end I bought has 11” drums that need a total rebuild. It’s pretty much the same amount of money and the “kits” for them are usually worse. Probably 75% of the drums I have rebuilt I had had problems either A, finding complete parts kits for them, or B you buy it and some of the parts aren’t correct. I spent an obscene amount of money today. New 320 dragon slayer heads. Used Dart single plane off eBay, king pin kit, some tools I needed, and a pair of spring locator plates I had to buy from a classic car wrecking yard because apparently nobody reproduces them
If you knew what bolt pattern the old rotors were that would simplify finding replacements. There are no 4 and 5/16th, you are measuring it wrong. If you bought a 8 and3/4 inch rear end that would be a Chrysler and will have a 4.5 inch bolt pattern. You may be able to use Chrysler rotors to keep the BP the same front and rear. What BP kit are you ordering from Speedway ?
You are reading that wrong. Not rotor bolt spacing dude, Spindle bolt spacing. Im not that much of a goober lol. I know what common wheel BPs are. Again, Im not a novice to the hobby, just this era. Im also a professional aircraft mechanic, but I cant look at a beam axle and know off the top of my head what 40s truck it came out of like Im sure some of you guys can. Im ordering a 4.75 kit from speedway, I already have wheels for that. The Chrysler has 4.5 which throws my game off some, but I really wanted something with bolt in axles. This was a good deal, 3.91s, 35 splines and a full spool already. Ive been looking for some unilug 15x8 cragars or slot mags. If I wasn't looking for a cheap set they would be everywhere.
I'll never figure out how guys can put modern heads on an engine, that's sitting on top of a straight axle. It just doesn't compute Carry on! also, when shopping for brake parts for old cars, I never even consider trying to find a complete kit of parts for it. I figure out what parts need to be replaced, and search for those parts. I guess I'm just really old fashioned! but it works for me.
I get it, but again it comes down to time and money. Buy a set of 088s and then have them ported to the moon? Or buy a set of brodix heads for $900 each. Probably paint them so they don't look out of place and lets party. Sorta like you were saying in the other thread about dumping the AFR gauge and enjoying the car. Ill just buy what works and lets skip to the fun part. Im fabricating steering, floor pans, trans cross member, axle mounts. I have enough on my plate that I don't feel bad about taking a short cut on the top end. (BTW highly recommend John Oz for BBC parts. he beat Summits price on those heads by a full $150. That's hard to do) Im also going to run an automatic which people are going to scoff at, but whatever. Its easier, and I just wanna go racing. My Galaxie is a Toploader, so I don't feel like I need to prove to anyone that I can drive a stick either. Ive often considered buying a Mustang just to do an LS swap, with a carb, a dana 60, just to upset the maximum amount of people possible. On the brakes part, Im with you. That's exactly what I was doing. The problem is I need all of it. There is no part of that existing setup that I felt good about outside of the brackets. And when I put all the parts in the cart it was basically the same price. IDK what else to say lol. And with the kit it will come with the races I need installed rather than me changing the inner one. I am admittedly still looking to see if I can find an ebay special rotor/caliper/pad package for less money. But its not looking good.
You're probably going the right way on the front brakes...if nothing you have is serviceable, a new kit will do what you need. I'm running a pair of 074 heads, I guess I got lucky finding them already ported to the moon, so the Vette guys didn't want them. cost about the same as a set of new heads, when I got done with them. There are just a few guys who see the snowflake, and smile, and that makes it worth while. I would run old iron heads, if I hadn't got the aluminum ones. It's just the way those new heads look, so different from anything you could buy when straight axles made sense, that makes them look so out of place. An auto trans is the way to go. The neat thing about a 400 is that you can build it using mostly stuff that was available back when, and it will work good, and not break the bank.
Dude, I totally get it. But Im trying to be practical here within the timeframe and budget. I would like to run a tunnel ram. But one nice carb is expensive enough without two and linkage to worry about too. Maybe in the future. I missed a 1000 cfm HP yesterday for $200. Im a bit salty about that still. Im looking for an 850 or bigger HP that I can buy for cheap and put a kit in.
Two little old carbs might cost less than one big carb? I have less than 200 in my 1990s vintage AFBs, they work fine. Linkage, can be expensive, or not so expensive, depends how you do it. Intakes...kind of a toss up, but if you want something matched to those heads, it could be expensive either way.
Getting off topic a little but I suppose the topic is mostly settled. I haven't researched it heavily because I know Im not doing it this year, but aren't there fairly dramatic differences amongst tunnel rams? Just like there is a big jump in the modern design of an RPM vs a classic Performer. I see tunnel rams pretty cheap, but I feel like Ive read that some of the old designs leave a lot of power on the table. And maybe drivability too.
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