I was scrounging in the depths of the HAMB archives trying to figure out what I'll need to do to make this old banjo reat with the wide 5s work on my 29a pickup project and I found a post where someone mentioned you could use the disc brakes from a sprint car because they use the same big bolt pattern. My brother races dirt track so i thought that I could get a deal on anything from his buddies but I wanted to hear from anyone who has done it and how incredibly goofy might it look. The rear does have mechanical brakes, so i'll have to do something.
There was a '27 T roadster at a Road Agents meet a few years ago that had sprint car brakes and wide fives. I'll have to dig out the photos.
The star-shaped piece I had waterjetted from 1/2" 6061 aluminum. This goes against the back (inside) of the drum and allows you to mount a 3/8" X 12" sprint disc using four 3/4" X 2" aluminum bar standoffs. Of course the portion of the drum that the old shoes would contact has been machined off. I can Email an Autocad "dwg" file of that piece if you think you might want to attempt such a project.
Yeah johnnyfast, I'm not quite following the assembly. Are you still using the old drum as a cover? Do you have any photos of it disassembled? That's exactly what I'm looking for. If you could send me that autocad file that would be awesome. Nate
I machined off the shoe surface part of the drum. The bearing hub and wheel mounting part remains. It looks like this other cruddy photo (stock) from the outside. I'm part way through this deal....I came up with some minor changes I want to make. I'll be purchasing a better digital camera soon and I'll be able to give you photos of the entire deal. Might be a couple of weeks. I Emailed the file.
That's cool! I've got plenty of other stuff to do before I'm ready to do this, So I'll be happy to let you work out the bugs . So did you keep the old drum part so you would have the bearing hub? That makes sense. I figured even though the bolt pattern was the same I didn't know how to attach the disc brake to the axle. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
The caliper (JFZ 2-piston) attaches to the other bracket. I'm not thrilled with that one so I'll be re-designing it later. Nothing attaches to the axle....except the spindle itself.
I'm designing a "lakester/modified/T bucket" in Autocad. It will use a tubular "birdcage-type" chassis riding on sprint car torsion bars on all four corners. I have an Iron Duke w/5-speed for motivation. I have a '36 Ford front axle that will be located by split wishbones. I'll also use a '36 Ford rearend. All four wheels will have sprint car disc brakes....2-piston JFZ calipers at the front and 4-piston JFZ calipers on .812" vented rotors at the rear. If you have Autocad I can Email a preliminary drawing of what I'm doing. Bear in mind that this is VERY preliminary, that changes will be coming as I proceed.
yeah, send what you've got i'd love to see it. I appreciate all the help too. I should be able to get some good info from what you're doing for my project.
If you are happy to use hydraulic Ford brakes, get some from a '39 Ford. That was the first year for hydraulic brakes and the last year with the big stud pattern.
[ QUOTE ] If you are happy to use hydraulic Ford brakes, get some from a '39 Ford. That was the first year for hydraulic brakes and the last year with the big stud pattern. [/ QUOTE ] Yeah, I know that's an option, I just don't know where I'm going to find a '39 ford that doesn't need it's brakes. Not that I would be opposed to it, but I like the idea of having 4 wheel discs if I can make it not look completely goofy. That's the issues I guess... goofy factor.
[ QUOTE ] If you are happy to use hydraulic Ford brakes, get some from a '39 Ford. That was the first year for hydraulic brakes and the last year with the big stud pattern. [/ QUOTE ] All you really need are 39 drums. The rest (backing plates, shoes, etc) can be '40 repops available everywhere. That's what I'm gonna do. Got the parts, just need the time. I like the idea of 4 wheel disk brakes tho...
Johnny, How the project progressing? I just came across this post and was wondering how the disk brakes conversion worked. As I just recently purchased a 1950's sprint car chassis which has and old halibrand Champ rear end with drums and wide 5's wheels on it. I'm wanting to take this chassis and use the parts to build a little roadster me and the wife can cruise around The state in. I want to make use of the torsion bar rear suspension currently on the car and would love to get some ideas from your design. Any information and helpful hints would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Nathan
I believe so, but don't know for sure. Just to be safe, I bought '39's. If you have '36-'38's you could measure them, and I'll check my backing plates... Mike
Johnnyfast I would love to have those CAD files if you don't mind sending them. jstanley@varco.com Stiper 36-39 Drums and 39-48 backing plates.
Nathan.....I haven't been working on it lately. My machinist has been vacationing in Thailand and I've been busy with other things. Also, I've gone to the early '36 brake drums (the ones with the windows) so it's almost like starting over.
I'm building a 36 ford 3 window and I was thinkin about the same thing last week but I was doing a little more modern approach. Since I was going to run a speedway engineering quick change in the rear, the rear was going to be simple, becuz they make a wide 5 hub, but the problem is that each different hub for the reaxle requires a different housing end. I like to change wheels on my cars and did want to be limited.That was how to do the rear, You might look them up for some housing ends to weld to your housing. On the front I was going to fabricate some spindles that would run a wide 5 spindle for the front but you have to narrow the track width by 1.5 inches on each side to make that work. Speedway1.com is their website. if you are wanting to check out their parts. Rodger
Here are the drums I'll be using. I was lucky to acquire two fronts and two rears. I haven't seen these used on anything except many years ago on some jalopy stock cars. I think they'll look cool when you can see the disc brake adaptors, etc., thru the windows. I'll be doing some creative work to the rears such as eliminating the center bolt pattern and raidiusing the flange so they more resemble the fronts.
Those drums look bitchin, kinda makes me wonder if they would work with later hyd. brakes. Anyone know? Drew
Are you going to mill off the entire brake shoe surface from the drum? Won't that make it real flexible and bendy?
Yessir ! But by the time I bolt on the 1/2" aluminum 6061-T6 adaptors, the 2" stand-off blocks, and the steel rotors, they'll be at least as stiff as the originals. Also, the car will weigh as little as 1200 lbs. (at least that's my target weight...).
The Jalopy Journal
