I got this set of spindles/brakes. It's almost identical to the US stuff, even the brake drums have a 78 parts number. Thing is the backing plates, shoes and brake cylinders are different. The adjusters are like the US ones. When I got this axle the seller told me, he believed it came out of a british ford pilot but was not shure.......Shoe relining is no problem, but I would like to find the right wheel cylinders with out playing around a lot. US ones don't fit with out redrilling.
The Pilot brakes I had, used an external wheel cylinder that actuated a kind of wedge to spread the shoes. However I can't claim to know much more than that about Pilots - Monkeybiker might be able to help if you PM him.
That spindle look much more like the 42-48 spindles, with the shape and king pin bosses. If I were to guess I'd say they were a little later than 39, but I am not sure how late english fords used wide 5 wheels. American fords used a weird cylinder with two different sized bores for the front and back shoes. That cylinder looks a little more standard, have you looked for a part number on it? If you can't find the right one, you might be able to find something close and make it work.
ford pilots were only made from 47-51 and all had the wide five wheels. I would guess that those would be the correct brakes. oddly enough the pilot had hydraulics in the front and mechanical brakes in the rear. Might have an odd sized wheel cylinder bore due to this, but I really have no idea....
If they were RHD English, the steering arm would be on the other spindle for a side-steer job, but I think that after the mid-'30s even English Fords used cross-steering, including Pilots (if that spindle is from a cross-steer application, that would make it LHD). They could be from a truck? I'll have a look tonight and see if the Pilot service manual has any clues.
Ok, so good so far. I did dig a little deeper in the brake stuff Here the next facts: -spindles are 37 and later style, altough they are square like the early ones, they have the wide bolt pattern for the backing plates, the hub has late style grease seal -the wierd shaped shoes are definitly not home made -The wheel cylinder is conventional (no step cylinder) with a 1 1/4" bore both sides. It has a Lockheed #8118374 or 8113374 on it (partly hard to read). A usual 1/4" brake hose fits but the two hold down screws seem to be metric 6mm. -The backing plate has two little humps where the wheel cylinder sits to make space for the outer rubber seal on the cylinder. I pointed to that with pen in the picture. Definitly no home made stuff.
"If they were RHD English, the steering arm would be on the other spindle for a side-steer job" Good point, the other spindle is set up for left hand drive cross steering. Maybe french Matford???
Pilots were exported...I don't know, but I think it is likely they made LHD for those markets. From memory, those look Pilot. See if parts are available to make them useable...if you can actually use them I can shoot the brake section from the Pilot shop manual. Pilot was same ch***is as Ford 62 and Matford, modified after the war with 85 isnstead of 60. Don't know how much carried over...brakes and several other systems substantially different from USA Fords, whole car looks 1936 Ford (it's release year, actually, for the 62) but is a bit smaller. There are WWII sedan and heavy station wagon versions, also using the '37 type 85.
REM's picture shows Pilot hydraulics - distinctive Rubery Owen (?) supplied cylinder made from Unobtanium? Pilots used the '36 style spindles and many Matford related parts. Metric threads in the cylinders would point to France I reckon.
English Model 62--WWII versions--Matfords--Pilots were all the same ch***is, English designed 62 based. The Pilot was a direct take-off on the WWII cars, the first with the bigger motor. Pilot got the basic 1937 type in USA Useage 21 stud V8 as used in most WWII English Ford vehicles. I think the prewar 62 and Matford were by far the most widely seen version, but Pilots were exported in some numbers.
Ok, thanks so far guys. The only real problem is in the wheel cylinders. Anything else is rebuildable. May be someone can look the Lockheed numbers up. It's #8118374 or 8113374.
Drums are 1936 only type. If your hardware is generally useable, size and photograps should get you to some modernish rubber cups for cylinders that will fit, and it should be fairly easy to get shoes relined from bulk friction material. Nordian in England would be a likely supplier if any original stuff exists...I think Pilot parts in general are very scarce because they never sold well. Sophisticated consumers might have noticed that it was a prewar car... Are there any numbers or letters forged into spindles? I suspect drilled pattern is '32-6 type, but hard to say from just pics.
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