How well do these fit on a 40 Ford Spindle? And Do they require any machine work? I also have 56 F-100 Hubs, What works the best? Thank you. Nick
you need 40 ford backing plates or 41 lincoln backing plates, early 60's buick drums and 48 ford Hubs. The 48 ford hubs are mated to the buick drums... the buick drums require some machineing so that they fit if your going to run 40 ford backing plates F-100's wont work... UNLESS you take the lineings out of a buick drum and fit them over a 11" f-100 drum Steve has some pics of an article regarding the above conversion. I'm doing it on my 38 axle and just figured it all out thanks to fellow hambers. Tuck
They fit very well, once you mount them to a Ford hub. What we're trying to say is, you take the 12" buick drum, throw away the buick hub, mount it to a '42(I think)-later Ford hub, the kind that mount outside the drum, machine the inner lip of the buick drum off so it'll clear the 12" Ford backing plate, and youre in business. 11" Ford brakes naturally fall short an inch. 12" lincoln brakes work but you have to remove the outer-ring which is the visual reason to use expensive lincoln brakes in the first place. The pitfalls are- finding affordable buick drums that are usable, finding affordable ford hubs that are usable, finding affordable machinists who understand what the hell youre asking them to do with this stuff.
steve hendrickson did a very complete artical on this when he worked for Rodder's Digest. if you'd like i would email you a copy of it.this subjest has been on here many times,try doing a search. i wish all this info would go into the Tech O'matic the machine work on the 46-48 ford hub is simple,i can do that on my 11" swing lathe.basically the rear side of the hub has to be turned down to fit inside the center hole on the drum. the removing the inner lip on the buick drum for clearance for the backing plates takes a REAL big lathe. i've had it done on a brake drum lathe while the drums were being turned,some places seem able to do it,some not,depends on their equipment. the last set of buick drums i did i borrowed a rotary table,mounted it and the drums in my mill. take a look at my ****py drawing to see what needs to be removed on the drum:
Good post! Do they need to be '40 drums? Will 46- 48 drums work? I know a guy that machined his hubs to fit the drum and cut right through into the center of the hub - must not be too much material there - can the drum be machined instead of the hub? I just picked up a pair of nice drums, but don't have hubs yet. Thanx
You mean hubs, not drums? The '40 hub is inside the ford drum, and I think the offset of the ford drum is thicker than the buick drum so you cant simply subs***ute drums, the buick drum will be too far inboard. I think. Anyway, its always been done using the later outside-mounted ford hub, I just figure that must be the reason. Thats why mystery swap meet drums with outside hubs still cost money. As a sidenote, another reason why these drums cost money is when changing to 12" lincoln brakes with ford drums, you have to use the outside hub type, or then you have to machine the outer lip of the '40 type to clear the outer lincoln ring.
These use the later Ford hubs. You can use the early hub too, but the hub will be inside the Buick drum. You can see the shiney area where the lip was machined to clear the backing plate.
I'll be using '40 hubs for mine. May I ***ume, by using the 40 hubs and mounting them inside the buick drums, I may be able to omit the machining process on the lip of the buick drum? By mounting the ford hub on the inside of the drum, I've just moved the drum further out and away from the backing plate. Will it be enough to allow clearance between the drum and the backing plate? I realize I still have to have the "neck" of my 40 hubs machined to fit into the buick center hole.
From my post yesterday, I meant to say the drum will be too far outboard. Rocky, I dont think youll have to remove the lip and I think youll get only about half the width of the shoe making contact.
I had to turn down the large diameter of the stud flange so it would nest in the Buicks machined area inside the drum. (I wouldn't call that the neck?) I remember having to turn some of the drum flange to clear but I don't think it was as much as needed when using the 48 hub. I've done it both ways. They work with either hub. The adapting is slightly different that's all.
Thanks guys...Tommy, by the "neck", I was refering to the area of the hub where the hub registers in the center-hole of the drum.
Rocky the center hub on my early style hubs was smaller than the hole in the Buick drum. I had a friend machine a spacer to center the drum on the hub snout. I put the early hub inside the Buick drum the way Ford had it. I think that is what you are planning to do. The machined area inside the Buick drum was smaller in dia.than the OD of the flange. It wouldn't seat properly. After I reduced the flange dia. the two machined surfaces mated beautifully. The spacer centered the drum so the new bolt pattern could be drilled. Of course the drum was turned after rehubbing...standard practice even with new drums. It's hard to see but if you look inside the 35 wire you can see the hub sticking through the Buick drum and the new studs. I'd take better pictures but my camera is down. This picture was taken to show how big a spacer would be needed to run 35 wires on Buick drums. You can see the inside machined circle I'm talking about in my other pictures above. You can barely see the aprox. 1/8" spacer used to center the hub snout in the Buick hole.
Ahhhhhhhhh, I see. All the while I was under the mistaken impression the ford snout was larger in diameter than the hole in the Buick drum. This shines a new light on the situation. Thanks, Tommy. Any chance you happen to have any of those hub rings lying about? Like, maybe 2 extras you'd care to sell? Otherwise, I can prolly ahve a couple of 'em made up here.
To clarify, there are TWO ways to do this. I am sure some guys are getting mixed up. 1. Tommy uses the method my boss uses. Weld a ring to the hub and mount it INSIDE the drum. 2. The article Steve H wrote and the way most guys do it mounts the hubs OUTSIDE the drum. Rocky, we keep tube stock next to the lathe iffin you want me to part you a couple spacers?
Where you put the hub is determined by which hub you have. If you have the 40 style hub you have to put it inside the drum. If you have the 48 style hub, it will only work mounted on the outside (within reason). I see people franticly looking for 48 hubs because they think that is the only part that works. I did the 40 hubs before there was anyone on the internet to tell me I was doing it all wrong. To be fair I now prefer the 48 hub. I think you see more of the fins. Sorry Rocky no extras.
Tommy, I'm using the '40 front hubs and I don't really like seeing 4" of buick drums hanging out. A nice 1" span of finned drum sticking out behind my skinny front runners will suffice....
There won't be a great deal of difference in the amount of fins showing. Here are the 48 hubbed drums (the first set of pictures). You can see how far the backing plate is recessed into the drum. The tires are 600-16 on 48 wheels.
I used 46-48 hubs with early 60's buick drums and plan to use 59 buick (bendix) backing plates with a 1/2 in alum spacer as per The Hot Rod works blueprint's. I have a complete set of instructions on this conversion and two magazine articles that came from Hot Rod works that I'll photo copy and mail anyone that PM's me their address. I spent $225 cdn on machining the hubs, studs and mating the drums and hubs.
I used an Ammco disc/drum brake lathe to turn down the 40 stud flange and relieve the drum for the backing plate clearance. Lots of people have access to a brake lathe. I did pay a machine shop to redrill the bolt pattern. I wanted that accurate. Have the new studs with you so the machinist can size the holes. The holes need to be correctly sized so the knurled studs will lock the hub and drum together when they are pressed in. Or they can be pulled in with a nut and a stack of washers.
i found 40 hubs [inside fit] will work with a simple adopter ring [mates buick id to ford od will get drums on hubs this is fine if you want to keep the 5 1/2 on 5 wheel pattern the 40 hubs seem way to thin to redrill for any other patterns i used wilson welding new hubs [set up for 4 1/2 4 3/4 and 5" bolt patterns] they cost 210 a pr and accept 1/2 fine threaded bolts in all 3 patterns [for wheel studs] but by the time you find buy used hubs have them re-drilled find studs etc you may find these are weel worth the $$ have single cup f-250 backing plates hope these worh as well as i was told seeing as i sold my camaro disc set-up [didn't like the look on a high boy] john
For $200 plus $20 shipping you can buy new nodular iron hubs already machined to fit the Buick brake drum. They fit the 37 and up Ford spindle and made in USA. Dust caps included. www.wilsonweldingandmachine.com .
No sorry. This tread is 2 years old and the drums were done 2 years before that. I do remember having a hard time finding one with a long enough knurled shoulder to lock the hub and drum together but they are out there. All of the dimensions are listed in the catalogs. Do a search. A Dorman number has been listed in another thread in the last few months.
wow these threads linger around for years.. that rules. 36threewindow helped me do the machine work he had a jig. Heres some pics to add to this... This was Gregs template so we could drill the bolt pattern to the smallbolt chevy... or ford...
we turned down the lip on the 48 car hubs I got from ROCKY- so they would fit down inside the drum. we threaded the hub so that the studs could be turned in from the back and hold the drum tight to the hub.
The Jalopy Journal
