Im building a 1931 ford pick-up and when i picked up the project it had brakes on it. the guy I bought it from said they were juice brakes. I have been looking everywhere for parts for this style brakes. the brum assembly has the bearings in it and everything im looking at does not. Oh also the wheels im going with are wire rimes...what I would like to get at the same exact drums with new baring in them, a spring kit and brake shoes..any help with this?
Thompson's garage has all you need for those brakes, as well as other suppliers close to you. Those are the hubs that you see with the bearings. They are swedge fit on and when you buy new drums, they do not come with the hubs. I think that's what is confusing you. Also, wire wheels with spacers will work fine with those drums. Speedway sells the spacer rings. Hope this helps.
Is there a reason you want new ones? If you aren't equipped to do so, ask your friends who they take their brake shoes to for re-lining, and bearings cleaned and re-packed. Here in my neck of the woods it's called BRAKE AND CLUTCH repair shop. You should be able to clean/inspect/repack the wheel bearings without buying new ones. Take the drums to a shop that turns brake drums and they'll tell you if you need new ones. Also after cleaning and repacking bearings put new seals on the inner bearings.
Also, look at the inside edge of the drums where the shoe fits. If there isn't a little ridge worn in there, it's most likely you don't need the drums truned at all. The guy that installed them might have done that already.
so the kit with speedway 12" bendix style brakes are what I want..what I dont get is the set i have has the hub built into the brums and the set that speedway sales does not have anything....the hydraulic brake adapter ring will that act as the new hub?..man this is kind of cornfusing...lol
No, do not order anything from Speedway. You have all the parts there just need to rebuild. Call Spadaro or since you are in CA, Sacramento Vintage Ford and get new shoes. OR find a place to reline yours. Prb will need new wheel cylinders as well. Have a brake shop check the drums and see if there is enough meat in them. Do a search here, TONS of info!
Forget speedway, call Dick Spadaro or contact www.macsautoparts.com. What you have there looks to be in pretty good rebuildable shape. And when set up properly, works great for most early fords. Those are 40-41 brakes, by the way. Original ford drums/hubs came as a unit with the lug studs sweged. Modern repop "early ford" brake kits and components use a seperate drum that just slips on and off like a modern drum setup. If you have some ford drums that are beyond the point of being able to be turned, you can use a swege cutting tool to remove the studs and seperate the drum and hub. Then you can install new longer studs and use the repop removeable drums with the original hubs. Speedway's hydraulic brake adaptor set is for installing the brakes you currently have on pre-'36 ford spindles, cars that originally had mechanical brakes. In order to run wire wheels, you'll either want to source a nice original set of '35 Ford drums or you'll need a set of "wire wheel adaptors" to support the flange on early wire wheels that isn't supported by the later drums.
Actually what you have is 40-41 style backing plates and hub/drum assys. Shoes are a bit different from the 42-48 style so you need the 39-41 shoes. Adjusting procedure is a bit different than the later style as you also have adjustable anchors to deal with. repaired to new condition they work quite well in under 2500 lb cars.
ok cool I want to rebuild them...is there a way to tell if the bearings are good also would napa have new seals after I repacked the bearings if they are good? thanks this shit is good, I was so lost...
Do yourself a favor and call Spadaro for your parts. Good stuff, better prices than napa. For the price of the bearings, just replace them. Keep the old ones as spares if they feel smooth/look alright.
Wash the breaings up in solvent of some sort and look for chips or pits in the rollers and races. If they don't have such you are good to go, stains don't hurt anything as long as everything is smooth. Most likely NAPA will have seals other wise any of the old Ford/rod suppliers will.
Locally for us So. Cal. guys is the Early V-8 Garage in West Covina....Talk to Richard....He has everything you need and can turn the drums and arc the shoes which is an important part of an early Ford brake job....
this a picture of the wheels Im using that fit prior to me taking apart the front end...also is a picture of the spindels that Im using.....do I need to still get a Hydraulic brake adapter ring..it was not on there when I took them apart?
Those round back spindles will work with your 39-42 backing plates.....you will need a ring on the drums if your using those wires....those bumps on the back of the wheel will not allow a flush fit up against the drum......
Yes, the 35 drums had support nubs on em that seated on the wheels, later drums need the rings to work together
Click on Ebay and put this link in the search and the spacer rings will show up 250690595562 Then when you know what you are hunting for you can hunt for them on your own. What everyone is saying is that those wheels will not mate up to those drums without a set of rings to help them fit right. Basically if you bolt them on an tighten the nuts down without the rings you stand a good chance of ruining the wheels before you ever run them. As far as the brake and clutch shop that a couple of guys suggested taking the shoes to. Almost every city of any size has at least one shop that rebuilds clutch disks and pressure plates and relines brake shoes. This is usually done for truck applications but most of them also service car and light truck and odd ball applications. This isn't the brake shop attached to the tire store or muffler shop but a walk in shop more attuned to a machine shop in nature. When you walk in you see brake shoes, brake drums, clutch disks and pressure plates and not much else. Most of the time the majority of us here on the board prefer to buy our "hard parts" from local shops or shops that specialize in the vehicles we have rather than from Speedway. Quite often those vendors are fellow Hambers and or Hamb Alliance Vendors. I'd also suggest that if you don't already have them start buying and building a reference library with some of the books available for building traditional Ford hot rods. The Bishop and Tardel Book how to build a Traditional Ford Hot Rod has a lot of the answers you are looking for. Along with that I'd suggest hunting for an old (Pre 1960) High School automechanics text book. Going through that will help you with some of the basics that you may not now have. Now probably for the first time since I have been here on the HAMB I have to disagree with John Even's advice. 45 years ago my then Auto shop teacher taught me that one "never" washes a wheel bearing, roller bearing or ball bearing in solvent if he intends to use it again. That has stuck with me and if I don't suspect that the bearing is bad I do not wash it in solvent. I usually spend a bit of extra time wiping and cleaning the bearing with a shop rag and after inspecting it carefully either pack it with grease and install it or replace it if it is bad. This is the same thing I taught all of my automechanics students during the 13 years that I taught High school auto mechanics.
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