Guys, Put my '32 spindles together with the Speedway early spindle/later wheel bearing hub kit. Today I removed my '46 brake drums and noticed grinding going on between a flange on the spindles and the inner wheel bearing seal. Did I just not press the seal down far enough? Or is there some part mismatching going on here that I'm oblivious to? The Speedway kit consists of the large "piston ring" that centers the backing plate on the smaller OD spindle surface and the small ring (pictured below on the spindle) that takes up space between the outer surface of the spindle and the inner face of the inner wheel bearing. Any help is appreciated. Mike
Mike. I believe you need a spacer. The spacer moves the bearing surface for the seal out. I had to do the same thing. Richard Lacy of Early V8 Garage has them. He posts regularly on the Fordbarn Hope this helps Jim
So this spacer is different than the ring that is on the spindle in the first pic? I am wondering why my "kit" didn't come with it? Thanks for your help. Mike
That isn't right anyway you look at it. Call speedways tech guys and tell them your problem. Hopefully they will get you the right parts.
On '32-'34 spindles there is a stamped steel cup that is pressed on to the shoulder of the spindle. It's original purpose was to keep grease from the inner wheel bearing from making it's way out and contaminating the brakes because there was no seal in the hub like there is with your "40" drum/hub. When installing hydraulic brakes and using the adaptor kit to mate the '32-'34 spindles to '39 and later backing plates these cups need to be removed from the spindle. From the looks of your first picture they were not removed and the face of the seal has been grinding away at them. They are very easy to remove. A sharp straight blade screwdriver or gasket scraper tapped moderately into the gap between the spindle and the cup will pop them right off. Those piston ring spacers are not the greatest method for fitting the hydraulic backing plates to the early spindles. They are cast iron and very brittle. They are also thicker than the backing plate and can eventually crack and break. A very high quality, CNC-machined backing plate spacer ring is available from the Early V8 Garage. The spacer ring also has a flange on it that fits against the inside of the backing plate and is solidly located by the 4 backing plate bolts. A much higher quality solution than sticking a piston ring in there. The spacer rings can be purchased seperately or as a kit with the wheel bearing spacers that go on the spindle. Also, he bearing spacers in that Speedway kit are nothing more than cylinder head valve seats and are typically a loose fit on the spindle. The bearing spacers in the EV8G kit are CNC machined to the propper overall dimensions to be a better fit on the spindle. If your interested in upgrading your backing plate adaptor kit, contact Richard Lacy at the Early V8 Garage. 626-338-2282.
Dennis, Thanks very much - that totally makes sense! I will use the Early V8 Garage from now on for items that you provide for my old Fords. Mike
Check the seal some seals have a double platform like the platform that is grinding. So its possible that the seal you have has a platform on the inside and one on the outside. So the inside platform is hitting the inner bearing. In other words the seal is getting crushed between the bearing and the spindle. Knuck from indiana.
Everyone who modifies their brake system has to research all the available options. As Dennis has stated above the kit offered by the Early V8 Garage is a very high quality kit of the best components. Don't take your life and safety for granted and don't use inferior parts of suspect design. Not all customers have problems with Speedway but I have no friends who will buy anything from them.
I just looked at the picture, you got the correct parts, it just looked like you did not remove the original grease slinger from the spindle before reinstalling the hub. Just take a screw driver and pop off that little stamped steel cup on the large boss and you should be good to go. As a precaution check that you haven't damages the new grease seal.
As per Dennis' post, most dealers are still selling the "inexpensive" X-2000 adaptor kit that consists of (brittle and too thick) piston rings and (too thin and too loose) valve seats. A few years back, Dave Wilton of MT Car Products was making what I called a DLX-2000 kit, that consisted of properly-made flanged spacers for the brake plates to mount on the early spindles and properly-made bearing spacers of the correct thickness and fit. Dave stopped making the kits when he stopped selling Ford brakes in favor of the Lincoln Bendix brakes, which are available with fronts that fit the 28-31 and 32-34 and 35-36 spindles, but which still require the bearing spacer except for some later 1935 spindles and all 1936 spindles, which already have the wider boss. He advised me that if I wanted any more, I should arrange to have them made myself. I finally got around to doing that and they are now again available, either directly from me or through dealers who arrange to purchase them from me. I offer the flanged spacers only for those who have spindles with the wide boss, or the bearing spacers only for those who are using Bendix plates with the smaller bolt pattern. I also offer a special kingpin kit for 32-36's to eliminate the "socket" and relocate the load- carrying to the BOTTOM of the axle. (The sockets on the original kingpins also carry the load, so it is not a good idea to just CUT OFF the sockets!) My kit is optional for use with Ford/Merc/Lockheed brakes, but is REQUIRED when installing Bendix brakes on 28-31 or 32-34 or 35-36 small-pattern spindles, as the wheel cylinder is mounted lower and the socket is therefore in the way of the port for the front hose. On 32-36's, I prefer to retain the original spindles, which eliminates the need to modify the steering arms and other linkage. On 32-34's, it also allows using the correctly-oriented original LH steering arm (drag link connection) as the bolt-on adaptor "hairpins" and other replacement arms are all made incorrectly, causing the draglink to be too long and thereby messing up the steering geometry and centering with the front wheels.
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