Technical Anyone Have A Hollander Parts Interchange Book???

Anyone have a Chevy or GM interchange book on hand for around the '50's & '60's? I am thinking out of the box here, I am looking for a complete '54 Chevy front brake parts from the backing plates to hubs & drums to install on my '57 Truck axle. If memory is correct the '53-'62 Corvette had a '53 passenger car front suspension. Since I have a complete '61 Vette front clip siting doing nothing I am hoping someone can confirm if it's the same & will fit the '57 truck spindles. Thanks!

 

I'll owned my 62 Vette since 1972 and have heard many times through the years that they are the same. If nobody has an interchange manual, you could lookup the parts for the 61 and then run the part numbers and see if they come up as for a 54 Chevy also.

 

Years ago, I sold the front suspension from a '53 Belair parts car to someone with a '62 Corvette, and it worked no problem.

 

Looks like only the spindle suports are different. I found this in my files:
"The 49-54 Chev pass cars and 53-62 Vettes share the same front end parts (including the cross member). There is one exception to this. The 53-54 pass cars have a spindle support (this is the upright part that the spindle hinges on) that has the knuckle for the kingpin positioned about 1in higher"

 

"I'll owned my 62 Vette since 1972 and have heard many times through the years that they are the same. If nobody has an interchange manual, you could lookup the parts for the 61 and then run the part numbers and see if they come up as for a 54 Chevy also."
Your a lucky man! I owned my '62 for 15 years until the deal of the day on a house & shop came up and had to sell for the down payment, the house & shop was 29K! Thanks for all the great info!

 

you could just look in the Chevy parts book yourself, eh?

https://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/1929_57chevyparts/index.htm

take some time to figure out how it works, with the group numbers. Look up the illustration first, then find the group number, then look up the part by application. If you need help understanding what the vehicle model numbers mean (ie 150, 3A, etc) look in the front of the book under General Info, there is a listing by year of what the models are, that might help.

I have the paper versions of Chevy parts books for 1930s-70s, I refer to them often.

 

Most will say take the vette parts off and see if they fit, well it will take 2 hr's to get to the front clip, another 2 or 3 to dismantle one side of nuts and bolts that haven't been touched in 40 years. So it's a toss up, dismantle or do book work, I choose dismantle one side of the vette clip. If it don't fit I can sell the clip or part it out and move on!

 

Drums and shoes are the same according to Rock auto.
I've seen seen some say that the 54 drum and hub are a direct swap on TF 3100 spindles without a backing plate change but I have never had chance to try it.
That might be worth trying first. All too often these guys get away from the original question and that question is can you take the drums off the Corvette spindle and stick them on the Truck spindle and how the frigging Corvette spindle mounts to the control arm doesn't mean anything as you aren't using the spindle.
You have to drill two holes in the car backing plates because the distance between holes on the truck spindles is larger as seen in this photo that I took of one that was part of a set that I swapped to a truck forum member for his Huck brakes that will go with my Chevy 18 inch wires on my boat tail.

You also have to make some spacers to go between the backing plate and the truck spindle. I don't remember the length but after you get the two other bolts snugged down it is measure and cut and fit. If you have a length of old Ford hollow steering shaft in the stash pile that is just the right ID.



Drums and shoes are readily available. Raybestos or Bendix 228 shoes.

 

I think I have a pair of truck brakes....as well as a set of 62 Corvette brakes.

but that would require looking.

 

Jim, I have the complete Vette front clip.................

 

48 your also a wealth of info! That explains this pic of the E-bay add, I didn't buy it because of the extra holes & the guy won't respond to any of my questions. Maybe he didn't like the fact that I started the question with "how could they be rebuilt" missing a lug & all the hardware!

 

I wouldn't mind the idler arm.....

 

Couple of things. What I quoted was in regards to lowers the car 1" using the 54 front end. I did not include the rest of quote because he did not mention lowering the car but if the spindles are the same the hubs, backing plates etc. would also be the same. I only was referring to his question as to if the 54 Chevy and 61 Vettes were the same. I did not answer the second part of his question if the 57 truck was the same as 54 Chevy and 61 Vette.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Thank you! You saved me some cash, now I don't need to buy a $50 book of E-Bay^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

I forgot does a '61,'62 Vette have self adj. front brakes??????

 

manual adjusting brakes

 

Let me see what I will be needing, will pull it out of the barn tomorrow for a look see, tear down..........................................

 

Basically it's an upgrade for a 49-54 Chevy passenger car. And between my 53 and 54 I have three total stock idler arms ....all need rebuilt lol. Only reason I have the third is another member helped me out

 

Well here it is in all it's dirty splendor, a '58-'62 Vette. backing plate, brakes & hubs all fitting on a stock '57 Chevy Truck spindle. Why am I using the Vette parts? because I already had them. One minute I am looking for '54 Chevy Pass. backing plates & brakes the next minute I am pulling long forgotten parts out of the barn. not that anyone else will be doing it this way BUT there seems to be same if not more Vette parts available then the '54 Chevy parts. Only modification will be welding 4 Vette backing plate holes & redrilling using the '57 Truck spindle holes as a guild. Will also change the old school ball bearings to tapered conversion. Anyone have the bearing part numbers for this conversion?

 

There are no direct replacement standard bearings...you have to get something from the aftermarket, and those bearings don't have a lot of rollers like normal tapered roller bearings.

I'd leave the ball bearings. I've been using them in my 59 truck for decades, they give little trouble if you keep grease in them.

 

Interesting about keeping the ball type! I have had a lot of trouble with Chinees bearings, was hoping to find a set of American made tapered. Seeing the price of the aftermarket bearings as opposed to the balls I have no problem going that direction. Thanks!

 

There is an outer bearing, direct fit, that is tapered, when I repacked them in my ‘59 PU, I was shocked to see the outer tapered bearing.
Not the match I’d have done.
Had the bearing number written on something, somewhere, would never find it now.

 

Long shot, but have you tried your local library?

Charlie Stephens

 

I can buy a book off E-Bay but already found out the book won't help. Already mounted the '61 Vette, backing plates & hubs. See post #20

 

I checked my Hollander when I answered on Tuesday and as Moriarity said, there is no listing for backing plates.
As others said there is no tapered inner bearing that is readily available from parts or bearing houses. That is because of the rounded inner edge on the inner race of the original bearings. No production tapered bearing comes with that edge. Guys have taped up the right size bearing cone and used a die grinder to round off that corner but it is a sketchy process. That was before they started selling the sets that come from some supplier. Outer bearing just takes getting the inner and outer race diameters and getting into the bearing book. That I may have done around 1990 but have long forgotten about. When I worked nights in a parts house I spent a lot of time in the parts books when I had what chores I needed to do done and it was quiet.

 

And make sure you leave a little play. Don't preload them like tapered rollers.

 

huh? Ball bearings are designed to run tight. Tapered rollers run loose.

 

My understanding is as follows:

Ball bearings destroy themselves quick if over tight or highly loaded because they have so little contact area. Rollers have a far wider range of "not ideal but still fine" because they have so much more contact area. The other side of that coin is that while both will run fine a little loose but due to the geometry of the balls and races the "loose but still fine" range is a wider target for ball bearings". I was taught to assemble ball bearing spindles hand tight or with small amounts of leverage.