early 50s dodge PU on Ford tube axle.. question..

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23crate

Well-known member
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Sep 26, 2014
Messages
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Location
new zealand
Brake drums on a ford I beam or tube....

anyone done it??
degree of success??

I was in the "thinking room" earlier today puzzling this....

im running a Model A frame , 32 front x member, 32 to 38 tube axle, thinking of brake options.. (318/904 combo)

in my Plymouth bodied 52 Desoto (previously owned) . the front brakes had a single slave cylinder for each brake shoe. something like the equivalent of 201 sq inches of braking..

throw a brake booster on the back and theoretically the 'stoppers' should do just that ......
so then dimensionally is this possible? what is the distance between the king pin mounts on the back of the drums and what is the king pin diameter. on the dodge drums

ie what are the chances of this fitting?? ..

I know there are so many options out there . this may or may not be a good one .. but keen to explore this

thanks
crate
 
Last edited:
Ok call me a dummy but i didn't really understand what you asked! Are you sure you really need to redesign a braking system?
 
sorry Smallfoot

kind of excelled myself ...

yep .. I wondered if kingpin dimensions would allow me to fit Dodge pu front brakes/drums etc to a ford axle
 
Measure twice, cut once......[ddd:D

Always wanted to say that!

Are you talking about having two wheel cylinders, one top, one bottom, to push the shoes? Sounds complicated....

A better idea would be self energizing like F1 pickup or Lincoln brakes. On Ford spindles. Lots of kits out there for those....
 
Short answer to a long question, Yep [ddd

hehehehe coulda done better with the question thing huh :D

hmm that's promising then...

Bama.. yup early 50s mopar did have a single slave per front brake shoe ..

pretty basic too .. 1 line into the back of the hub, feeds one slave at the top. splits off to the bottom slave for the other shoe

here in nz we have some laws around building cool cars.. somewhere north of where I live there is a 52 Desoto, with 318 v8 .. it was said that when it was certified, the original front brakes were more than very good ....

im looking ease of construction. if can simply bolt and go , drums are pretty styley if they work good.. I will be backing it up with a 7'' booster . 1'' bore master .. just thinking options ..

ford could work ~ opting to be different if it works like the idea

dodgey crate
 
As someone who owns a 50's Mopar with the funky double wheel cylinder setup, I can tell you to run far away from them. Even when they do work they are still very finicky and require constant adjustment. An interesting idea in theory, but it just didn't work well. There's a reason no one else did it, and anyone who owns one of these cars is in search of an upgrade. Also, new wheel cylinders for them are practically impossible to find, so you are left with finding useable originals and rebuilding them.

Just run the Ford brakes. There's a reason they are widely used - because they work.
 
interested to hear more on these ....

[ Also, new wheel cylinders for them are practically impossible to find, so you are left with finding useable originals and rebuilding them.

http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...1437800,brake+&+wheel+hub,wheel+cylinder,1952

heres a few .. save me some though :D

im doing a little more research in to this... theres local guy reckons hes rebuilt his front on his pu. and theyre adequate.. not to sure of his definition tho.. mopar used these for maybe 5 years that im aware of ? ..

interested to know more .. on paper they seem highly more effective than a single slave ..

will let youse know what I find out over here ...

love to hear more opinions from this forum.. good or bad
 
MGA's had the dual brake cylinders as I recall and they worked great.
I have heard that the mopar versions were and are funky to deal with.
The thought behind them is that you get better braking because the shoe is pushed out evenly against the drum giving you more brake pad surface area in contact with the drum.
I have always thought of them as the evolution towards disc brakes. Although the big Healeys and some Triumphs had Girling disc brakes.around this time period.
Torchie
 
The reason I got such a deal on my '51 Plymouth was that the lad could not find brake parts. That was 25 years ago. I found them and rebuilt the brakes. They seemed to work fine for a flathead-6 powered car that was hard pressed to fully utilize the speedometer. That said, I think that an upgrade is well worth the investment.
 
hmm seems lot of thinking then,, was hoping to use mopar drums .. maybe not such a good idea ? My NZ contact clarified . they are good brakes - for his flattie truck.. its a cool PU too ! never had brakes working on my early 50s mopar. id talked with a few who said they would / should be good...

Thanks for your helps..
 

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