Technical Mystery Ford Spindle

Here's a mystery for the old Ford experts.

I'm doing a '40 Ford coupe over and have been in the process of switching from disc to drum brakes on the front. I pulled the hardly use disc set-up off what appeared to be 42-48 Ford p***enger car spindles and began prepping a set of 53-56 F100 front brakes including the hubs, backing plates and drums. Bought new bearings races and seals for the conversion.

Got a call from the guy who took the discs for his project who says the inner bearing and adapter I took off my spindles are too big and won't fit his 37-41 spindles. So, yesterday evening I started comparing a 37-41 round back to the spindles on my axle.

Bottom line, my spindles on the axle are equipped with king pins of the .810" diameter variety. I popped one off and it has normal size bushings. Next I tried a 37-48 inner bearing and it wouldn't slide on. Then I discovered that the bearing and seal diameter on my spindles was the same as an F100. In fact the F100 hub went right on as it should.

I thought maybe someone had shaved the steering arm mounts off a pair of F100 spindles and bushed them for a smaller king pin but that doesn't appear to be the case because the boss around the king pin on the F100 is bigger than on my spindle and my spindle appears to be as forged in that area. Although it looks like an F100 spindle could be used after rework it appears that is not the case. Likewise the thickness of the backing plate register is almost twice as thick on the F100 than on my spindles. King pin inclination appears correct on my CE axle.

Anyone got any idea what my mystery spindles are?

I'm inclined to use them with the F100 brakes, make my friend well and sell the discs as an F100 disc set-up as the have Chevy and big Ford patterns on them. Only thing is, I'd like to be able the replace them if necessary down the road. I could switch them to 37-41's from inventory but I'm still curious as to what I have.

Thanks,

Charlie

 

I do not know but can you switch with the fella that has your disc brake stuff?

 

You probably have 48-52 F-1 spindles

 

Thanks guys.

I have been under the believe that the F1 spindles have the same snout dimensions as the 37-48 p***enger spindles. The guy that has my disc brakes has wide five hydraulic brakes currently.

I'll be getting the disc set up back but I still want to use self energizing drum brakes on the car. Im just hesitant to use an unknown spindle.

Charlie

 

I had 2 pairs of spindles like that. F-1 or F100 brakes bolted right on, but these were round like 37-40 spindles. They were NOS and had olive green paint on the making me think they were military issue. The forging number was 01Y...

 

No ... The snout for 48-52 same as the f100 ...if you use bolt on steering arms they look same as 42-48 spindles... The greese zerk local on bottom king pin bushing maybe a tell if the orig holes were used

 

Both of these spindles have been ground on the bottom inside and use bolt on CE steering arms. Both bottom zircs point to the center of the car. One top zirc points to the center and the other at about 1:30 to the rear. On this one there is a filled zirc hole pointing to the rear also.

Confirming - the snout is like F100 and the kingpin is the same diameter(about .810) as 37-48. F100 spindle kingpin I took the brake from is larger by nearly 1/2".

I will check grease hole locations in bushings on both sides.

 

Yes spindle snout measurements are the same 48-56, backing plates are the same brake parts are the same, hubs and drums however are different , the offset on hubs are different 48-52 hubs must use 48-52 drums 53-56 hubs must use 53-56 drums.....

Or the short version is ... All your f-100 stuff will bolt up to your spindles.. No adapting needed... Use f-100 bearings and seal

 

Thanks thirtytwo. Very concise. There isn't much info about the F1 spindles and I was finding some opposing information.

I'm going to go ahead with the F100 conversion. I'll resell the disc brake kit to someone who needs it for am F1 or F100.

Charlie