Hi all, I purchased a T-Bucket this past summer and while getting ready I discovered that the front spindles were old Econoline or maybe '55ish F100 spindles. The axle is 1 3/4" diameter, 4"drop, approximately 49 1/2" kingpin C to C with .75" kingpin bore. Also the bosses are 2 1/4" tall. I think this is an old Total Performance axle the would have used Econoline kingpins. But the kingpin inclination is 7*. I have a new Speedway '37-'48 disc brake w/ spindles kit. Am I better off getting a different axle, or boring the kingpin bore out and adding a spacer for the Ford spindles. I've built several vintage supermods, but this my first street rod.
Another common spindle was ‘49-‘54 Chevy. This diagram makes it seem like TPI had their own spindles?
The T P spindles were made by TP & were a cross of Econoline & 49-54 chev spindles . like you say , either custom machine something or go a different route , TP spindles were cast IIRC
That's correct, TP sold cast spindles and they were an odd hybrid that used '49-'54 Chevy disc brake brackets, '37-'48 Ford hubs and .742 Econoline king pins. Unless you dig up some OEM Econoline spindles (and that's assuming Mickey Lauria didn't change the king pin inclination too!) it might be easier to use a front axle that takes '37-'48 Ford spindles.
MAS Racing also had tube axles that used a regular Econoline spindle, had one on my old T bucket. After I finally identified the spindles, I was able to get the backing plates thru a HAMBer (41Dave) and install front brakes. Enjoy your build, Carp.
If it were me, and I already had that axle AND early Ford spindles and brake kit, I'd modify the axle to accept the early Ford spindles. Replacement parts are readily available in the future.
Without the correct spindles the axle is useless, so I think I would source another cheap tube axle that used Ford spindles, probably from speedway, and swap the hairpin/spring brackets over.
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