does anyone know if the spindles and axles are the same on a 1949 f1 are the same as on a 53-56 f100? I can find all sorts of disk brake conversions for the f100 but not much for the f1's, I want to keep my stock front axle! my drums are shot and I have to get shoes anyways, I already have the mastercylinder and booster from a 1980 (?) fairmont wagon installed last year that was front disks and rear drums so I may as well look into doing it all
check out classic performance parts, I think they have kits that will give you small or large Ford bolt pattern. http://www.classicperform.com/
I looked at them ones, I was just wondering if thats the only place to get them for an f1. if the 48-52 f1's are the same as the 53-56 f100's there is more of a variety to shop
I seem to remember the 48-56 effie spindles are pretty dang similar and all the aftermarket kits at the time were not year specific. Most the ones I've seen are for 48-56. I think I got a ECI kit on my '48 F1. Can't remember, it's been over 8 years now. Honestly all you really need is a layout of the bracket and you could cut one from some thick stock and lathe a piece tube or whatnot to make a spindle adapter for the bearing to ride on. Other than that bit of machine work everything else seemd to be a bolt on affair. But Like I said it's been a good 8 years since I did the conversion. The kit did come with a nifty parts interchange list of what fits the kit. Let me get home and I'll post a copy of the parts list tonight. Oh yeah, I went with a 5 X 4.5 inch bolt circle.
It's been nearly 20 years since I did mine, but I want to say I used ECI brackets. I changed to the passenger car 4.5" bolt-circle, so used Volare rotors w/GM intermediate calipers - cheap, cheap, cheap! The brackets were straight forward 3/8" (if I remember right) flat-plate designs - you could probably figure it out for yourself with some 1/4" particle board for templates... I think there was also a machined spacer for the inner wheel bearings too...so if you do copy the brackets, get the dimensions of that bad boy as well. Any machine shop with a lathe should be able to turn some up relatively inexpensively.
Ok, the kit I got uses the following parts for the conversion to 5 X 4.5 inch bolt circle disc brakes. Rotors 76-81 Aspen, Diplomat, Volare 73-74 Barracuda 73-75 Belvedere, GTX, Satellite, Sebring 73-76 Valiant, Duster, Scamp 77-81 LeBaron 80-81 Cordoba Calipers 76-77 Buick Apollo 73-76 Buick Skylark 77 Buick Regal 75-77 Cadillac Seville 70-77 Chevy Camaro 73-76 Chevy Chevelle 73-77 Chevy Monte Carlo 77 Chevy Nova 73-76 Olds Cutlass 75-77 Olds Omega 70-77 Pontiac Firebird 73-77 Pontiac Grand Prix 75-77 Pontiac Ventura 71-77 Chevy El Camino 71-77 GMC Sprint You will also need a front grease seal from a 69-82 Corvette (National #9406S) You will have to fabricate a caliper mounting bracket and a bearing adaptor. When I get a chance (prolly this weekend) I'll measure them up and post it here.
I appreciate the info so far! I got some rotors and calipers off an 81 GM van thats 5 4 3/4 bolt pattern I was gonna use if I could and if your wheel bearing adaptor specs match up I'm set if not I'll head to the auto wreckers and pick up the stuff you guys listed if they got it that bearing adaptor spacer made from high carbon steel?
No problem. I dunno about what type of steel the spacer is made of. I'll have my wife look at it, she'd know better than I. (Machine shop/engineering family) Also this set up uses stock GM caliper mounting bolts. Looking at the instructions they mention two more critical things 1. the caliper bracket is installed on the rear surface of the spindle and they use spacers or lockwashers between the bracket and the spindle back. They specify that without the spacer the caliper won't line up right with the rotor. 2. They mention that the bearings are machined. So once I get you the bearing adaptor specs you will need to check the measurements on the inner bearing.
Well it started raining on me (I have no garage or car port or shop, I'm building my truck in the great wide open, seriously!) before I got to pulling those brakes today. It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow too. I'm hoping I get a break in the wet stuff so I can get this handled though. Just wanted to post a heads up for those waiting on me.
The Jalopy Journal
