Adapting hydraulic brakes to 34 spindle

[Ken/Alabama]

I’m adapting 46-48 brakes to 34 spindles. Bought a kit that came with two spacers and two cast piston rings. Even though the piston ring fits nicely inside the backing plate and registers nice on the spindle I just don’t like that idea much so I modified the backing plates to fit the spindles. More work but I feel better. So the next issue is the small ring that fits over the spindle. Is this supposed to be a tight fit so it can’t rotate ? These are definitely not, I can spin it with my finger. And what exactly is the purpose of this ring, spacer. First time dealing with this .

 

[hotcoupe]

I think the bearing butts up to that spacer so that the brake drum does not contact the backing plates. It's been several years that I was working with that set-up. The inner race of the bearing is going to prevent that spacer from turning.
Hope this helps,
Tom

 

[Tim Brown]

I think that the spacer/Ring is for a grease seal to run on. Ive been wrong before, ask my wife...

 

[cas3]

I agree with Tim, its the seal surface, the 34 had no seal. I did one with the kit from Lecy, v8 garage, and my spacers were a bit loose too. I peened the spindle a bit, then red locktite. I also welded up the holes in the backing plate and re drilled to 34 spindle size.

 

[big deuce]

Years ago, I had some rings laser cut and no longer have the connection to get them, but they were sweet. Metal finished after welding to look like a '40 spindle. Used the Boling bros spacer...https://www.bolingbrothers.com/spindle-spacer-pr/

 

[petehoovie]

Years ago, I had some rings laser cut and no longer have the connection to get them, but they were sweet. Metal finished after welding to look like a '40 spindle. Used the Boling bros spacer...https://www.bolingbrothers.com/spindle-spacer-pr/

 

[hotcoupe]

Tim Brown is correct that the grease seal runs on the spacer, but the PRIMARY reason for the spacer is to move the hub outboard on the spindle so that the edge of the brake drum does not make contact with the backing plates. Like I said before, I'm doing this from memory so please let us know how it works out.
Tom

 

[Chris Marshall]

In my experience that bearing spacer that goes on the spindle needs to have an interference fit and not spin. The inner bearing will not hold it. The generic kits use a valve seat that does not have the correct ID diameter for an interference fit. I had these on my 32 roadster several years ago. After driving some miles I noticed one of the front hubs had excessive play. Bearings looked good so I put it back together. A few hundred miles and the hub was loose again. A closer inspection showed those spacers were spinning on the spindle and slowly wearing down. The friction from the grease seal was enough to make them spin on the spindle. The fix? - purchase a set of bearing spacers from Dennis Lacy at Early V8 Garage. His are machined and have the correct interference fit so they won't spin. I put a set on my 32 and haven't had any more issues.

 

[Mart]

I did this job on my 32. I modified the backing plates by adding weld material and reboring to a smaller size, and redrilling to suit. Can't remember what I did for the inner spacer. One thing I did have to do was cut down the end of the spindle and drill a new cotter pin hole. This allowed the correct nut to be used and the grease cap to fit over it.
I will post some links to the relevant videos.
Mart.

Links:
Backing plate mods: https://youtu.be/4sVdRkusfEA?si=bS28FBMhJoYflZBv
Shortening spindle: https://youtu.be/xbMZwXWecMU?si=zfXmMO9icYY9zrcl