40 Ford brakes and wheel size

My question is do you have to use 16 inch wheels or will 15's fit over drums with out any problems?

 

I don't know about all 15's but I've used the merc 15" wheels on the '40 style brakes.

Frank

 

I have cut down 40 wheel centers with skinny VW bug outer rim hoops...on 1940 front drums.

 

i have some 15" 40's style re-pops over buick drums. you should be fine with the '40 drums.

 

I have 15 inch ET gasser wheels on my '40 Ford drums, which originally came with 16 inch wheels, and have no clearance issues whatsoever. I can easily fit the width of my fingers through the gap between the drum and the inside rim of the wheel. I tried to upload two photos that may show you the clearances I have with this set up. You can try to zoom in on the wheel portion of the photos. Hope this helps. You can simply measure the distance across your intended wheel against the drum's width, and there you go. Or not. My truck was built by Brian Thomas from Salt Lake, by the way.

 

I have 14" smoothies on the front of my '40 pickup with no problems so 15' should be fine.

 

1st pic. (1972) 49-51 Merc 15 in. wheels up front; 50 Lincoln 15 in. wheels on rear.

2nd pic 9(wreck) stock 16 in wheels and 6:00 x 16 tires

3rd pic (black) 15 x 5 1/2 early Ford pick up wheels

 

Yes ... 15 inch wheels fit over the 1940 Ford hubs with room to spare.



My 40 Ford ran 15's on the front and the rear ...

The potential problem with rims other than rims designed to run on the BIG bearing hubs ... is that most other rims do not have a center hole large enough to allow the rims to sit flush with the brake drum.





See the difference in the center holes??

The top two are for a BIG HUB like a 1940 Ford and a lot of Ford pickups. The BLUE rim has a smalller center hole ... like a 1956 Ford passenger vehicle.