Somtime back I thought I read about converting early ford brakes to self energising.Using 12" bendex stuff. Been to tech and did a search but found nothing. thanks for the help.
The parts are as follows: brake shoes.....Raybestos 364 PG star adjuster....Raybestos H2552 & H2553 Spring Kit....Carlson H7150 Wheel cylinders...Wagner WC 18290 & WC 18291 W/C "push rods".....Carlson H1422-2 (need 4 of them) Brake shoe Retainer washer...help section (Motormite)..13896 (2 of them) You'll have to relocate the wheel cylinder location and reweld the offset near the bottm of the backing plate. If my memory serves me correcly everything is for a 76-78 Chevy Caprice.
Thanks,I read that in tech section. I am trying to find some complete 71-76 caprice rear brake assembly's to adapt to my hotrod. Thanks again for the input.
You want the rear brakes off the BIG chevy station wagons ONLY, like Caprice, Kingwood, from 1971-76 Advance Auto had the shoes on the shelf here. I used these and 1940 Ford brake drums on my Model A You can use the Chevy backing plate too. and the self adjusters
I cut out the center of the 71-76 Caprice wagon backing plate and welded in a Ford-pattern center that I made on the lathe
Thanks coupeguy but I have 56F100 brakes on the front. Problem is Kelsey hays spoke wheels won't fit over the brake drums. Want earley ford drums. Thanks for posting. I am looking for caprice rear brakes. I am ready to promase my next male grandchild for some.
I got every piece at Advance Auto parts store except the self adjusting arms I needed two, so I got some off an el Camino at the U Pull It I cut them and added metal so they matched my Caprice Wagon adjusters No need to sell the grand kids I did it so I could put 16" 1935 wheels and electric car radials on my A
You can get 39 Lincoln backing plates from Wilson Welding Some Buicks in the 60s had 12" plates (re-do the centers) You can modify old mechanical Ford plates
What mods did you have to do to the front backing plate and what spindles did you use and are they also big chevy front BPs? Thanx, Dave
I belive it's 1971-1976 big gm wagons. backing plates modified to fit ford spindles. I started out wanting to adapt these parts to early ford backing plates. If I could find a set of gm backing plates i would cad draw the needed mod and try it.
Early Ford front and rear backing plates are the same except for the tubes for the emergency brake cables so a front conversion should be easier than a rear.
Hello, I want converting 1940 ford backing plates, thanks to Kirk I've the parts reference but I need the diameter of the brake shoes anchor bolt ? Do you think that an anchor bolt from a 78/88 el camino will work on 12" shoes ?
The ones I have done use 48 backing plates and the anchor pin bolts from a gm front drum brake car, but believe any will work if spaced as needed..
The bolt circle is irrelevant. What you're looking for are 12" brake backing plates with all the hardware attached. You don't need the drums (and axles).
Other options for 12" self-energizing brakes buried in some of these threads: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=166339 Tech archive
I think I started all this Caprice talk with my post from years ago. I did the conversion probably in 92 or so. All I used from the Caprice was the hardware. I used 46-48 Ford backing plates and made plates to mount the wheel cylinder and the top post. I removed the stock lower posts and opened up the area for the adjuster. I used the Ford backing plates because I had them and knew the back spacing was right. Using other backing plates might incur problems with the lip fitting in the drums.I would need to make some tooling if I was going to use the Caprice backing plates. The tooling would center the new center and set the off set so the drum will fit the backing plate correctly. I had already put the Buick drums on the car and had been using stock 40 brakes. I just wanted to upgrade to wide modern brakes. I ended up with 2.5x12 shoes. I recommend just buying the Wilson backing plates if you want to use the 40 Ford style drums. The drums and backing plates are off the car now if anyone wants better pics of what I did.
I agree with Andy, A lot of work with 47 backing plates, Wilson much easier ,but dont have the early ford look.....
Talking about modifying brake stuff, try this on as a project. I took a job on whereas I had to install a 400" sbc engine, and a switch pitch GM hydro transmission into a mid 60's Rolls Royce. The RR used a contraption like a Dodge parking brake at the extension housing of their GM Hydromatic trans. In effect this brake drum was a mechanically power brake booster, and provided (unbeknown to me) upwards of a whole gang (memory is vague but it might have been 3600 psi) of brake line fluid pressure. As I had eliminated the old RR/Hydromatic trans and brake gizmo, I lost all my mechanical assist on the foot brake linkage. RR used two front wheel cylinders per front wheel, but their twin shoes were trailing rather than like Chrysler's twin self energizing shoes. I couldn't get enough brake line pressure generated to stop the thing, so I reversed the left and right front backing plates, and now had twin self energizing brakes like Chrysler successfully used. The RR beast would then stop with good pedal pressure (after me trying from 7/8" up to 1 1/4" (or so) diameter master cylinders, and adapting a vacuum power brake booster. But the car wore the RR brake shoes out in one week. A brake shop in Chicago relined the RR brake shoes with some high temp brake lining, and the car stopped just fine. During the job, I had occasion to call the U.S. RR rep questioning him about how much brake fluid pressure the RR needed, and I got a really nasty response back - - but he did tell me how high the line pressure had to be. Now in retrospect, I think that adapting an ABS electric pump and accumulator might have fixed my fluid pressure dilemma.
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