There has been a little action about this lately so I figured I'd throw my hat in the ring. Got some drums and started looking at options just to be different, and wondered why nobody uses the hubs that are already in the drums. Other than the obvious (and being a former toolmaker) I figured there had to be a way to do it. Anyway long story short we machined the relief in the aluminum drums the typical way for 40's backers, machined bearing adapters for the buick bearings and it works. I know the 5-5 pattern isn't exactly the most desireable, however the hubs have enough area for another pattern easy. One thing about this is it doesn't take a big lathe to do it, other than machining the drum relief, but you can get that done at a shop with a brake lathe. Went a step further and took ANDY's tips and put late 70's chevy self adj and energizing brakes on the 40's backers and should be the ticket for good strong brakes and cheaper too. Anyway don't have a camera but will try and post some pics of the deal if any interest.
Interested in seeing pics and dimensions of bearing adapters and 70's Chevy brakes on 40 backing plates. Good for tech post.
search in "ANDY" 's posts for chevy brakes on ford backers or something like that for the brakes and that's a start, I did a couple of things different that made it a little easier, like using late 60's ford F350 front cylinders, and I machined my own anchor pins which allowed me to use one 1/4" shim to line everything up. I have been having trouble finding self adjuster kits with the L shaped lever arm in it (2 piece arm). Will be exploring 11" kits to lengthen that arm (comes in the 11" kit) otherwise everything is available. Any help there would be helpful 12" kit #'s are H2552 and H2553
I realize a picture is worth a thousand words, but for now words will have to do. The inner bearing adapter is similar to adapter for the the chevy disc brake conversion and the outer adapter is nothing more than the same thing with the appropriate OD ID combo for the outer bearing, I have all this info wrote down just not handy
Try this http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7040&highlight=buick+drums+on+chevy+brakes[
One question on these adapters. The Chevy disc adapters can be very hard to get off the spindle. Do you think the outside adapters will stick like this and make it hard or impossible to get the drum off? Clark
No because the adapters are only there to act as the spindle OD and stay put so in theory the drum will slide off no different than any other situation. The small adapter OD is smaller than the ID of the inner bearing so no issue there either, no shoulder will be necessary at the outer adapter either
I heard that the brakes were coming along, good to see that it is working out for you. I too have a digital camera, if you need some pics posted.
Yes to more pics. I can read pics. bettr dan reading. Thanks to all! This is the kind of stuff I need to get me up off my dead butt and fix something!! I will PM for more info if necessary. Just ask.
Thanks, Joe i'll get a hold of you or Pete and maybe this weekend get the pics and get em up here. Also if there is enough interest I can see about a CNC run of the adapters and see what it would cost for a set, it's still way easier than swapping ford hubs into the drums.
I guess I wasn't real specific about that, but yes it mounts to ford spindles, I am using the square back with late 40's backers, so the ford brakes will work as well, I just was looking for better brakes. It becomes a piece of cake using ford brakes though. If you used those brakes you only need to relieve the aluminum down to the iron liner on the drum at the backer recess and put the two adapters on and the rest bolts together, no additional shims or anything like that and you get a full nut on the spindle with 1-2 threads exposed. Here is a quick sketch of the adapter cross section on the spindle.
I would be interested in the adapters as well. And why not use buick backing plates and brakes??? Michael
Funny you mention it, I was going to but the buick backers we have are the three bolt type and they won't work (not without a LOT of modification) I don't know the exact years but I think it was 57 -8 had a 4 bolt pattern in the center, and they work however you then have to get another set of adapters to mate the backer to the ford spindle, at that point I don't know what that would do to the relationship of the drum to the backer. It does eliminate the drum recess machining though. A long time ago Rocky was trying this and there is more info in those posts.
OK here's a couple of pics of the actual adapters and the cross section sketch (again) of where they go on the spindle. Press these on the spindle and the Buick drum and hub bolt on and that's it.
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