Ok, so I started complete ***embly of my front axle. I had to heat and bend the dropped arms I got from Pete and Jakes (superbell). Anyway, as you can see from the pic, I started mocking it all up and was getting ready to put my drums on my spindles. Well, I slid the drums on and put the bearing in and the washer. I noticed I only had a few threads left. So, I thought that I just needed to seat the bearing back in........nope, just enough threads to get the retaining nut started. I thought, well, I'm doing something stupid. So I wen to the other side and did the exact same thing. No way! I must be doing something wrong. I measured the distance from the edge of the back bearing flange to the tip of the threads- 5". Ok, now I went and measured my axle that came from a street rodded 40 coupe- 5 1/2". What the!!!!???? What are these spindles......after I cut the arms off and dressed them nicely....... They are round back and everything fits nicely; backing plates to spindles, etc.......
I used to have a set like that. They were machined to take the PSI adapter kit that mounted '59 Chevy brakes. They never worked well because the wheel cylinder was originally mounted to the spindle and would twist out of the backing plate without it. Maybe you got my old set?
did yours have spindle arms or where they armless? mine had arms and I cut them off. Also, this is the pair that someone else cut off the tie-rod end for the steering arm, flipped it over and rewelded it. The guys here on the HAMB twisted my arm not to us them and order dropped arms. I did and everything fit just like Ford fancy.......except the durn drums...... I'm gonna try to cut the arms off of the set I got the drums from (5 1/2" set) and dress them down. Then I'll jerk these crazy things off and look for any Ford stampings or part numbers...
Evidently you had drums and spindles from different year cars and the drums you need would be 1/2" shorter overall through the bearing hub. This is best left to the early Ford experts. I'm lucky....all my stuff is '36 and fits.
Did you purchase these at the swap meet? It looks like they have been machined down to take different hubs. There is a 40 3/4t pickup spindle that looks just like a car but takes a bigger inner bearing, so becareful there too. All 37-48 Ford snouts are around 5 3/4"
So this just freaked me out so I went and measured my set of '4O roundbacks. Yep 5.75". Looks like those got machined down. Guess they are good wall art now!
I picked them up off of an old hot rodder. His boy builds street rods so they probably came off of something he was building....the ole' man gets most of the take-off parts. Someone, had cut the tie-rod end off, flipped it over and welded it. I didn't get any backing plates or drums with them.....they were tied up in his shop... They don't look to have been machined......when I get a chance, I'll take set of calipers and check some other stuff on them. I'm mainly curious now..... I've already got the other set on now and I heated and bent the factory arms. Now I have an extra set of dropped super bell arms for the next project . Thanks everyone.... Man, if **** doesn't know.........they must be from Jupitor! One other thing to add: when I put the hubs on, they mated up well with the backing plates.....left about a 1/4" reveal exposed between the backing plate and the hub....just like normal....
The Jalopy Journal
