Ok, honest opinions needed. I want to keep the truck as standard as poss, should i ditch the huck drum brakes? i keep reading they are not great, when i drove my truck into the back yard the only way of stopping her was to hit something, brakes were shot, i dont mind putting discs on the front and a power master but does that mean i can't use my standard wheels? help! 50 3100 1/2 shortbed cheers guys Mad dog and englishman! ________ Bdsm Vids
Honest opinion ? O.K. here goes : I have a '49 with Hucks , I use this truck for _work_ as well as hobbying , I tow cars with it and haul scrap steel , old cast iron engines , trannies etc. and I like to tour in it , up & down steep mountains on narrow curvy roads . I like to drive fast too . It stops O.K. . not great but good enough , I can lock up all four wheels when needs be . I do plan my stops when I'm loaded up . DO NOT have the brake drums turned or " Trued Up " ! they were _barely_ thick enough when the truck was new and turning them makes them unable to dissapate heat buildup , this leads to rapid brake fade , evidenced by the brake pedal going slowly to the floor as you're frantically standing on it . New Huck drums are not currently avaiable , I just found a shed with some nice looking ones removed and stored some 30 years ago , gotta look into them . Wagner still makes ALL the hydraulic parts , master & wheel cylinders , hoses etc. so you should replace all of them now rather than rebuilding , this way you'll be able to rebuild them again as needed in the future . When having the brake shoes relined , have the reliner use " F F " grade friction materiel and see if they'll re-line the full length of the shoes , they like to twll you it doesn't matter but in truth , it makes a HUGE diferance in total swept area . I use bonded brake shoes but riveted ones will have far better stopping power and last longer too . You may find the need to do several adjustments as the new shoes bed in , I had to re-adjust them once a week for three _months_ as the DPO ahd assembled it all wrong and never re-adjusted so the new shoes were worn all wonky . If you're building a hobby truck, Huck brakes are fine , once set up correctly . I hope this helps... -Nate
every thing going back on the truck is new brake wise, but after reading some comments i was getting worried. ive been working on cars, trucks, race cars, rods etc all my life and i know that some models and makes have legendary faults, i was hoping huck brakes wasnt one of them. you have eased a furrowed brow, cheers neil Mad dog and englishman! ________ Honda Phantom specifications
Hey Guys I got a late model 50 with huck brakes on the front and the others on the back (cant remember the name). The work awsome. i can lock up the breaks when i have too no prob. I had to switch the huck brakes to the rr and the others to the front because of the new torque tube i got. I dont have the parts to hook up the e brake on the rr. Where can i get the parts. Ive checked around everywhere. People say all i have to do is swap the levers from the other shoes over. I tried but dont see how it wouldnt work. I got pretty much everything except the levers. I dont see how it would work. jeff
Not quite sure I understand , if you have a '50 with Huck brakes on the rear (you said so) it should all hook up just fine . If you've installed Bendix brakes in the rear , you'll need the parking brake cables from the Bendix equipped truck IIRC... I'm having the devil of a time with the Huck park brake cable on the R.R. of my '49 , it keeps popping off leaving me with only one wheel with a parking brake ~ not good . Chevy Obsolete in...?Georiga? used to have some _really_ good exploded pictures in thier OnLine parts catalog.... go take a look and maybe you can find the OnLine Manual Project as I think it has old truck shop manuals there... I hope this helps . -Nate
OK, this is real interesting, so what is the differnce between Huck and Bendix brakes? I guess they're both drum types, but do they have a different internal mechanism in some way? And, I guess the Hucks were an earlier style that was replaced by Bendix, right? The online parts catalog by the way is chevy.tocmp.com. The '50 brakes are at http://chevy.tocmp.com/1948_51truckshop/51ctsm0501.htm Mel
Hey Nate I got a 50 chevy that i think is a late model. It originaly had the bendix style brakes on the rr. I got a new re conditoned tourque tube and it now has the huck style brakes. I now have everything hooked up on it and working except the e brake. How do i go about getting the levers for the huck style. I know the bendix ones wont work. I wish. Im trying to get a out of province inspection and its hard without my e brake. I also the other day shifted down from 3 to 2 and my trany went kaputs. It sucked. I didnt check the oil and it over heated. I love to learn things the hard way. Then i dont forget. Its costing me a ton to get it all fixed. The day before that happend i was thinking about how well my truck was driving. It was purring like a kitten. What would you do if you had little leak in your front windo. When it rains i get a little dribble from the split in the windshield. It then dribbles across my dash into my glove box. jeff
RE: Mel & Jeff O.K. , Huck brakes are -not- self energizing and so they're not very efficient , bendix brakes (introduced on the 1951 3100 Models, earlier on the 1 tonners) have ' floating ' brake shows so they work harder with far less pedal effort . Jeff , you're asking the wrong person as my windshiled leaks like a sieve and soaks the contents of the G87#!87m glovebox thanx to a crappy Taiwanese grommet from Chevy Duty , what I did was to order up a top quality grommet from Steele Rubber but I've not yet stopped to install it.... -Nate
RE: Huck Brakes-Windshield seal [updated:LAST EDITED ON Jun-19-06 AT 09:42 AM (CST)]I put a new windshield in my '49 this past spring. In the center you will find a large rubber spacer between the two windshield halves. Check to see if you can pull the trim piece from the inside. I believe there are three bolts that thread through this piece into the outer piece through the rubber. If you can get the trim pieces off, then gently pry up the edges of the rubber on the outside and inside with a scraper and work some windshield sealer or black RTV into the seams. Also give a good look around the holes in the black rubber where the screws go through to see if they are not sealed. Pay extra attention where the center mount rubber meets the rubber that wraps around the rest of the windshield. Seal those, as well. You should be able to do it without pulling the glass, but it will take a bit of patience. Mine doesn't leak a drop after a few months in the Oregon rain.
