Building a clone of grandpa's service truck

Along with the bracket kit which came with bearings spacer etc. I got rotors and calipers off a 76 Monte Carlo at one of the local junk yards. the brake hoses were to short but I took it to NAPA and they found me some longer ones that worked out fine. I remember I had to change out the inner bearing race with the one they supplied. Thats about all I remember about it. It went pretty smooth as I remember. Hope this helps.

Jim

 

Just wanted to post a few photos of the disc brake conversion kit I had tried to use before I sent it back. I shipped it back to the seller on Tuesday, and my bank account was credited yesterday, so there were no problems with the return.

Here are the photos:

In the first shot (right side), you can see the steering stop just barely not clearing the caliper bracket.



Same story on the left side.



The third shot is from the outside of the left side. It appears to me if they had placed the recess that is near the bottom bolt hole a little higher up on the bracket, these would work nicely. The brackets were otherwise good quality parts, approximately 5/16 of an inch thick steel, possibly laser cut.



I'll be calling our host next week to find out which brackets they're currently using. I will most likely use our host's kit if the brackets are the correct design. By MNJim's account, it seems so! Thanks for the info, Jim.

Damon

 

Damon,
Its hard to tell for sure in your pictures but are you trying to put the calipers on the back side of the spindle? I put mine on the front side, I dont know for sure if thats right but it works? I've been following your progress and it looks great!! You do very nice work!!


Jim

 

Jim,

I was putting the caliper to the rear of the spindle, per the instructions in the kit. I suppose I could have tried installing them the other way, but I figured there was a reason the instructions said to put the caliper opening to the rear. I was thinking it was because of the rubber line's junction to the frame's hard line is to the rear of the axle.

Thanks for the comments. This is a really fun project. I only wish I was making longer and quicker strides towards completion!

Damon

 

Interesting...

If I was holding a caliper in my hand, the opening would be facing to the rear, and the side without shoes would be facing forward. (Driver side) So the calipers would be stopping a counter clockwise rotation from top to bottom, if I'm understanding the instructions. If the calipers were reversed, they would be stopping a counter clockwise rotation from bottom to top.

 

That's gotta be backward. ??? If they were installed the other way, the stop wouldn't be a problem at all, right?

 

Sorry, Zig. I should have been more specific. The instructions said to ensure the opening of the caliper bracket was to the rear of the spindle... not the opening of the caliper. The calipers were supposed to ride behind the spindle with the opening of the caliper towards the front of the truck to wrap around the rotor. I should have taken a few more photos to show what the assembly would have looked like, I just concentrated on what the problem was by focusing in on the steering stop clearance issue. In hindsight, I don't know for certain that it would have mattered if the calipers rode in front of or behind the spindle. I could have tried it the other way, as you're right... that would have eliminated the clearance issue altogether.

What do you guys think? Are front disc brake calipers normally mounted to the rear of the spindle for a specific reason?

Damon

 

Hmmmm~

I would have thought someone would have offered an opinion on this by now.

 

Okay, I looked at your thread but I guess I only used one eye. I was wanting to find what bracket you ended up using, and what about bearings, and what master did you go with?
Thanks if you can shed a little light on this for me. I would much rather know I could go to the store and get what I need. I also want to stay with the 6 lug pattern.
TIA!

 

Caliper Location

Some cars are fitted with forward calipers but very few .

I don't know the engineering reasons but I'd never , EVER do a foolish thing like cutting off a steering stop .

Two weeks ago I broke a wheel in a Vintage car @ speed on a very dangerous mountain road ~ I doubt the steering stops came into play but that's not the time to find out your shortcut was ill advised .

This is a good , informative thread .

 

It's an informative thread thanks to you and the rest of the gang that's helping me (and others) along the way. I greatly and truly appreciate the assistance. Looking forward to working on the truck while I'm on vacation from work.

Damon

 

Great thread.

 

I ordered the front disc brake conversion kit from our host today. Since it's coming from Classic Performance Products (in California), there's a two to four week shipping window. I'll be out of town visiting my brother this week in Washington state, so maybe... just maybe... the kit will be waiting on me when I get home. I highly doubt that, so I'm hoping it'll at least get here while I'm still on vacation from work. I'm itching to get back to work on the pick-up truck!

Damon

 

Very interesting thread and exciting family history.

Good job on your truck

 

Thank you, Frank!

The front disc brake kit arrived today (ordered from our host, produced and drop shipped to my door by Classic Performance Products). The first thing I did was unwrap the caliper brackets to check their design... they're the exact same brackets as what came with the kit from Speedway Motors (which didn't work)! They're NOT the brackets pictured on either our host's or CPP's websites. I'm tempted to just keep this kit and modify the brackets to work, as I don't believe I'll get a straight answer from anyone regarding why they're different and don't fit properly. Gonna stew on it over the weekend, then we'll see. I really wanna get back to work on my pick-up!

Damon

 

So I learned something today... I think. While I was at Jim's today, I looked at the front axle on his '51 daily driver (all four corners were up on jackstands, as he's painting the wheels a new color). It's a 3/4 ton truck that he's put a 1/2 ton front axle on so he could upgrade to disc brakes. The steering stops were not on the axle, and he doesn't remember removing them. The kingpin retainer bolts were inserted from the rear of the axle, and the nut is on the front side. This is opposite of my project truck's axle at the time of taking it apart. Mine also had the steering stops in place. Out of curiosity, we turned the wheel from stop to stop, and noted that nothing was hitting on either side of the truck each time we checked the steering travel.

Maybe I'm being paranoid about the whole steering stop issue. Jim has also upgraded to power steering. Maybe the stops aren't needed with that set-up. I'm also adding power steering to my truck.

Could someone (with or without power steering) check to see if their truck actually uses the steering stops on the back of the axle? I'd hate to grind on these new brackets for no reason.

Thanks in advance.

Damon

 

Fwiw~

Here's some shots of my front end. ~well, that didn't sound right, but anyway, I hope this helps?
It was too dark to see where I was shooting, but if you need more shots, let me know. (The last picture is me hard at work on this while my wife is wondering why I'm not in watching TV with her and my daughter.

 

Hey Zig, thanks for the shots! I see your drag link is disconnected. Is there any way it could be connected so you could run the same 'stop to stop' test Jim and I conducted on his pick up? I'm very curious to see if the limits within the power steering box are the reason the other components aren't causing interference since there are no steering stops on the back of his axle.

Damon

 

Zig, that last picture is you looking at "truck porn" again!

 

Ken~ yes, my wife caught me... Oh well, at least she hasn't seen me rubbing my trucks fenders!

Well, one of the reasons I'm holding off on is installing the steering column is I have to replaced the horn wire/bearing before I do that. Also, I need to finish the work under the dash before this happens. (I want ALL the wiring done before I stick a column in the way of what I need to do and get at, ya know what I mean?