In a couple of weeks I will be picking up my new rod. It's a 33 Chevy truck I am getting from V8Creator here on the HAMB... I plan to get a newer 6, manual tranny,and rear from a chevy truck at the wreckers. That will give me my 6 lug rear, but I need to figure out a 6 lug front brake setup.. Has anyone out there done a similar setup that can give me some ideas??? I don't want to change the suspension, and would like to find something that comes close to fitting. I can do mods if necessary....
Three ways to go about this.... 1) There are commercially available kits to adapt 70's truck 6-lug discs. 2) Take the whole beam and brakes out of a later truck. I'm pretty sure they were the same perch width up thru the Advance Design trucks. I know that a '38 axle (with hyd brakes) is the same width as the one in my '31. 3) Modify your axle to accept 49-54 passenger car spindles. Use the '52-'54 backing plates and hardware with 55-59 truck 6-lug drums. There are some other folks on here who can be real helpfull about old chevy stuff. Squirrel comes to mind, there are others. Ed PS- Check out the old Chevy articles in my sig line. There are some good ones in there about adapting later brakes to the early stuff.
There's one more way to do it, which is the way you probably want to go, which is to use 51-59 truck front brakes on the original axle/spindles.
Hey Squirrel, Does the same thing apply to '32 axle and spindles? I've bought a dropped tube axle, but the more I think about it, I want to use the original axle and have Loudpedal drop it. Are the 51-59 brakes a bolt on deal? Is the bolt pattern 5 lug? Thanks, Phil
The 51-59 truck brakes (6 lub) are a sort of bolt on. You may need to play with the spacers and bolt sizes between the spindle and backing plate. The 51-54 cars drum/hub (5 lug) will fit on the truck backing plate. Also the inner bearing inner race is the wrong size, you need the early race to match the spindle.
I just purchased a 50 chevy truck axle for my 34 2 dr sedan. It has hydro brakes and a 5 lug hub and drum...which opens up a lot more wheel and rear end possibilities. The spring perches are 1 inch wider than on my 34. just another possibility. If you are looking for original 6 lug spoked wheels, I have about 25 of them. Happy to get rid of some cheep
There are lotsa trucks running the car hub/drums up front, and a car rearend....it's a popular conversion to put 5 lugs on the early trucks. also the brakes and drums changed in 51, from the funky early fixed anchor Huck type to the modern Delco/Bendix style.
Are 1951-1954 chevy car brakes all the same? I have a set of 51 and they do not have the self adjusters. You have to adjust them. They fit almost perfect on my 32 chev axle. Also where is a good place to get shoes cheap?
Thanks for all the replies.... I plan to keep it 6 lug.... Just because.... It comes with 4 of the origional spoke wheels in good condition, and I was given 2 of the 6 lug "artilery" wheels..... I might try to find another pair of the artilery's, or just run the spokes with WWW's.... Can anyone tell me when they switched from closed to open driveshafts????
thanks squirrel...that is a ton of good info, I am gonna go looking for some 51-59 drums to fit on my 34, I might have a couple questions as they come up and now know who to look up...thanks ...joe
find a90 to a 95 isuzu truck there 6 lug.. swap the clip out...i have some drop spindles for that to brand new..never been used..$100 buck plus shipping...but u would have disk brakes and its narrow enough...and those trucks are everywhere..and pretty cheap on parts..and its torrsion bars suspension..so it rides good when its lowered (alot)..lol
An Isuzu clip....... I think not.... Good idea though... Nice to see someone who is not afraid to look outside the box... I would like to keep the straight axle.... So, it looks like I am looking for a 55-59 chevy truck to take all the driveline and brakes from.... Anybody got one??? I saw someone mention having an axle dropped by Loudpedal.... Is he a HAMB guy???
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