Disc brake question

3739ford

3739ford

Senior Member
After reading several threads where it was mentioned that the stopping of vehicles at higher rate of speed was a concern I started looking at options for disc brakes.

Speedway offers a disc kit for the front of my 39 pickup, but states the original steel 16 inch wheels will not work. I think I read somewhere (maybe wishful dreaming) that if a 1/4 inch thick spacer was added that the original wheels would work.

Can someone confirm if this works.

In doing a quick search for wide five 16 inch disc brake wheels I have come up empty.
 
Don't believe wheel spacing has anything to do with it, it's the wheel bolt pattern that is required to adapt available disc/rotors.
If you insist on keeping the wide 5's, maybe you should consider the possibility of upgrading the drum brakes along with a power booster.
 
The F-150 rotors in Speedway's kit have the 5 on 5-1/2" bolt pattern; but the calipers interfere with stock wheels. I have not heard anything specific as to how much if any spacer will work.

We have used them with repop 15" wheels; had to grind a little extra clearance into a couple spots on the calipers, tho not much.

Another thing worth mentioning is that both Speedway's and ECI's F-150/Gm caliper disc brake kits do not move the wheel mounting surface outward an inch or so as do many kits.


Don't know of any wide five disc brake set-up being made.
 
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As the stock '39 wheels are a 10 1/4" bolt pattern and the disc brake rotors are a much smaller pattern the stock wheels will not work. I used to have the Speedway disc brakes on my '38. I am now running '40 type wheels but I originally had a local guy make me up some adaptors out of 3/8" steel to adapt my wide five wheels to the smaller disc brake rotors. Worked fine, no interference with the calipers, stock style hub caps still fit, but it may push out the wheels slightly from stock depending on the rotors.

(photo is from the back side)
 

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As far as I'm concerned the 11 or 12 inch Bendix brakes are fine on the front. But, that still doesn't solve the wide-5 issue.
 
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I had a 36 coupe that I put Speedway's disc brake kit but with the late Ford bolt pattern.I think the rotors were Mopar.I also had a 57 9" rear end.I then used their adapter to the wide 5 bolt pattern so I could run the orig wheels.All worked out well with no issues.
 
3739ford said:
After reading several threads where it was mentioned that the stopping of vehicles at higher rate of speed was a concern I started looking at options for disc brakes.

Speedway offers a disc kit for the front of my 39 pickup, but states the original steel 16 inch wheels will not work. I think I read somewhere (maybe wishful dreaming) that if a 1/4 inch thick spacer was added that the original wheels would work.

Can someone confirm if this works.

In doing a quick search for wide five 16 inch disc brake wheels I have come up empty.
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What kit ? If you get the speedway wide 5 adapters it'll work with the ford or Chevy pattern rotors .
 
If he gets the kit with either the ford 41/2" or Chevy 4 3/4" rotor kit it will .

No where in the post does he say he's looking at the f-150 rotor kit .
 
Ggmac said:
If he gets the kit with either the ford 41/2" or Chevy 4 3/4" rotor kit it will .

No where in the post does he say he's looking at the f-150 rotor kit .
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If you reread my post I was only giving a warning about the Speedway kit with the F-150 rotors. He never specified which kit he was looking at from Speedway.
 
JSeery said:
As far as I'm concerned the 11 or 12 inch Bendix brakes are fine on the front. But, that still doesn't solve the wide-5 issue.
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It sure will! Think about it......12" Bendix ( LINCOLN) backing plates work perfectly-well with '37-'39 wide-five drums. DD
 
TJ said:
If you reread my post I was only giving a warning about the Speedway kit with the F-150 rotors. He never specified which kit he was looking at from Speedway.
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Sorry , I didnt mean that to be at any one person .
 
V8COOPMAN said:
It sure will! Think about it......12" Bendix ( LINCOLN) backing plates work perfectly-well with '37-'39 wide-five drums. DD
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Yep, I was just thinking F1/F100 type! The 11 inch ones are what I have worked with, 5 x 5 1/2 drums. No experience with the Lincoln brakes/backing plates. That's good to know that they work with the wide drums.
 
I really appreciate ALL the comments, so much knowledge and experience on this board. You have saved me a lot of $$$$$ in trial and error by freely giving your experience.
 
Check out Wilwood. They sell a hub with the wide 5 pattern. Probably get everything you need from them. Saw it installed on a ‘32 with wide 5 wheels. Mike
 
I think there's a guy on the H.A.M.B. that goes by "55 Willys" (or something close) that makes some specialized wide-5 stuff. It might be worth taking a look over there. Come to think about it, you'll probably have better luck looking for disc brake stuff over there anyway.
 
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If you use that Speedway wide 5 wheel adapter along with a disc kit that has 4-1/2" bolt pattern; your wheels will be moved out about 1-3/8" per side. 1" from the brake kit and another 3/8" from the adapter.

If you really want to keep the wide 5 wheels and you have good drums; the MT brakes with 1-3/4" shoes may be you best bet.

I would be interested in learning more about the Wilwood wide 5 hub set mentioned above by @Mike in AZ; I've only seen their Starlight wide 5 hubs on track cars and wonder how they were fitted to regular spindles.
 
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