Other than the backing plate area are 1956 and 1957 Ford spindles interchangeable? The backstory, I bought a 57 Ranchero project which came with a new disc brake kit which is for a 1954/6 Ford and 55/7 Thunderbird. Just wondering if I can just change the spindles to use the brake kit I have. Odd question I know but no harm in asking. Thanks
here's a picture of the 55-56 car spindle, swiped from ebay so it may or may not be correct....take a look...is it like your 57? I'd be surprised.
The basic architecture should be correct, but Ford screwed with the ball joint and tie rod end sizes and the steering stop may not be quite right. It's been a long time since I did one of these but IIRC the upper ball joint is OK, the lower ball joint will be too big for the spindle, the tie rod end could be anything. The '57 T-bird listing is a red herring as it carried the '56 suspension over while the regular cars had all-new suspension. FWIW, this info is based on a disc swap I did in the mid-'70s (predating all the 'kits', you still had to hit the boneyards for OEM parts) on a '56. What I found at the time was that the intermediate car spindles (Mustang, Fairlane/Torino and the later Granada) matched up on ball joint/tie rod end sizes slightly better than the full-size units, but were about 1" shorter in height and had shorter steering arms. I didn't like the geometry changes, so I used '71 full-size spindles which were very nearly identical as far as geometry but I had to have a tapered shim made for the lower ball joint. But you may not need to worry about that. Both spindles use the same wheel bearing sets so the rotor should fit as-is, you may have to mess with the caliper bracket a bit to get everything aligned but I'd say try it.
Crazy Steve Thanks for the info. My previous 57 used Granada spindles but I would like to use the kit I have. I can work with ball joint and tie rod end tapers but my concern was spindle height and spindle pin inclination. I had not thought about steering stops or steering arm length.
looks like the steering arm bolts on the earlier one...does yours bolt on? or one piece with the spindle?
It looks like the 56 spindle has a bolt on steering arm and a 57 is intergrated with the spindle.1956 part no is ad3105 c 1957 part no is coss3106a
The wheel bearings are different depending on which year spindle you use. 1970 and up Mustang, Torino, Cougar use a thicker spindle than the earlier versions and take a larger ID wheel bearing. I’m using 69 Fairlane disc brake spindles on my 57 and they work great. Had to ream the bottom hole for the larger lower 57 ball joint.
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