Rod brakes and a dropped I-beam

Hi Guys,
I have a '28A Roadster running a 4 banger. I want to keep it a trad' 'rod for the time being so I'm running stock bar operated brakes.

My question is if I drop the axle 4" how the hell do I mount the brake actuating axle ( for want of a better description ;-) ) that attaches to the back plate?

It was originally mounted to the perch along with the shackle but now it will be 4" higher and I'm not sure of a good way to provide robust support for it.

Any help will be greatly apprieciated!!

chux

 

I have heard of this being done both here and on the Ahooga Model A forum. Undoubtedly some fabbing will be required. It has been described in the Secrets of Speed magazine but I'm sure there's more than one way to skin this cat. For sure any brace that extends the brake actuating shaft mount that far upwards will need to be very stout. 99.9 percent of the people who put a dropped axle on a stock Model A end up using hydraulic brakes. An additional factor is relocating the tie-rod to below the wishbones because other wise it is certain to contact the frame. All in all a fair hassle which, in addition to wanting to get away from mechanical brakes, is why so few do it. Also 4 full inches of additional drop on a stock A axle is a very large amount, maybe too much. The guys who do that kind of work will know the reasonable limits.

 

Thankyou for taking the time to reply mate!

I'll go take a look at the forum and put in a sub to secrets of speed.

Chux

 

usually the A axle is dropped about 3" max isn't it? Why not just convert to 39-40 hydraulic brakes? They look traditional and stop better..? or How about some 14" Wilwood disc with polished Billet calipers? J/K

 

I'm trying to build the car pre '38 just for a challenge. I'm stickin to 21" wheels, non molested chassis, non molested body, worked 4 cyl motor, original crash box etc etc.

At the moment I'm concentrating on altering the stance, handling and tuning the mech brakes to work as well as they can ;-)

As I have a pretty complete car this is also an easier way for me to learn the basics, I can always upgrade to juice brakes, quickchange and body mods later in the cars life.

 

have you considered switching to 32-34 axle and perches, thats about 1.5" drop over the "A" and then you can reverse the spring eyes and take out a couple leaves
it'll get a nice stance like that

i just switched my car back to that axle from a dropped one, combined with the spring lowering i think it only brought the car up 1/2-3/4"

just something to think about and eliminate alot of headaches and worry of brackets braking

good luck....i like your plan...1938!!!
thats been my cutoff year for my 32 roadster too

 

I'd like to do this temporarily.(4" super bell dropped axle with mechanical brakes) I searched the model A forum and found nothing. Anyone else on here attempt this before?What did you do?

 

Exactly what I did along with a reverse eye spring in the rear. With 550's up fron and 750's in the rear, she sits right at 2 degree rake.

 

This will be a toughie. Most aftermarket dropped axles alter the spacing between the kingpin boss and the perch hole and even most dropped A axles don't retain the stock spacing. In light of this even if the stock perch were spaced up to the correct height it would no longer bolt right up to the brake rod protruding from the backing plate. Any adapter would have to be offset to compensate which is going to result in a tricky bit of machining and fabrication to retain the strength needed to properly resist the pull of the brake rods. Just bolting a piece of steel to the perch mount hole might not do the trick. There's not a whole lot of meat there and you'd be stressing the part way past its design limits. Even if that is solved there's still the problem of fabbing steering arms with several inches more drop than stock to clear the frame/wishbones. Others may disagree with this gloomy assessment but for sure there are no commercial aftermarket parts designed for this job so fabrication will be involved regardless.

The 32 axle route with its greater drop is likely a much easier way to go although it would involve rounding up all the later perch and brake parts and genny 32 parts aren't exactly lying around for the taking. Your best bet with the fewest headaches would be to use a stock A axle with a reversed-eye spring with a couple of leaves removed and just accept whatever drop you get. No point in forcing this one issue into a big time-consuming hassle when there are so many others that demand attention in any rod build. Besides the abundant banger enthusiasts on the board here don't mind a bit if a car isn't slammed down low. In fact they kinda like the stand up proud and tall attitude of so many of their vehicles.

 

Superbell axles were'nt around in 1938, and hot rods did not have that dropped front stance in 1938, so I'd think Zack Suhr's suggestion is going to be a better option. Otherwise, it's basically in the too hard basket. Mebbe Brent in 10 o c will chime in, he seems to be extremely knowledgable about these matters.

 

Yeah I think what is comes down to is quit being lazy and cheap and get some juice brakes on there and drive the shit out of it. I guess that is the direction I'll head. I mean that is where I want to be eventually anyway.