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1953-1963 Ford Brake Drum ANSWERS! - well, sort of

To: land-speed@autox.team.net
Subject: 1953-1963 Ford Brake Drum ANSWERS! - well, sort of
From: "Doug Anderson" <boogiewoogie12@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 20:56:43 +0000
Hi folks

Well I've done some checking on my old parts and have decided to post the
following in a effort of helping someone else at a later date with the 
mystery of early F-1 and F-100 brake drums;  I.E. what fits what
Hopefully some one can learn something or at least have something to think 
about  :-)    Thanks to all of you who responded to my inquiries about this 
dilemma!  You're da' best!


               ***************************************

EARLY F-100 BRAKE COMPARISON
          -between a "so called" 1955 set and a '56...

DRUMS:  Both drums have 2 <" of "shoe surface". Look Identical but have 
different "offset"  see below.

SHOES:  Both sets of shoes are actually 2" in width.

HUB BACKSPACE:
(measured straight back from the brake drum face
on the hub to the backing plate with a steel rule)

-on the so called 1955; 2.625
- on the alleged 1956;  3.250
    the difference;      .625

DRUM OFFSET:
( as measured with the drum to wheel face lying on a flat surface.  (open 
side up)
Measurement is from that flat surface to the outside edge of the drum)

-on the so called 1955; .220
-on the alleged 1956;   .620
     the difference;    .400

Because the hubs were spaced out further, so too did the drums need MORE 
backspace" in order to cover the shoes entirely.  Thereby answering the 
nagging question, "why ain't my shoes covered"?


Clearly somebody at Ford long ago decided that track width must be changed 
from what it was to something else.  I'm betting the one we are calling the 
"1955" is perhaps in reality a bit earlier say of 1948 to 1952  F-1 
vintage.   I'm guessing here but I bet'cha that after 1952 some engineer 
wanted a wider track of an inch and a quarter ( .625"X 2 = 1.25" change in 
track ) so they changed both the hub flange centerline and the drum 
"backspace" to make that happen.  What I stumbled upon was a mis-match of 
different year parts.  The moral to the story being "you must keep hubs AND 
drums of the same years together when messing with early Ford truck brakes"!

Further, I'm betting that suppliers in the past twenty or thirty years 
either;  1. Forgot they were different,   -or 2.  Did not feel there was any 
profit in making two different drums for these early applications  figuring 
(and perhaps rightly) that they'd never get their money back from tooling up 
to make the "shorter" of the two so they just blew it off -leaving those of 
us inclined to mess with rusty old Ford stuff to be forever lost in the haze 
of time and wirebrush dust.   Wandering about forever like the guy with the 
lantern looking for an honest man

                         so now you know "the rest of the story"


-now I just gotta find some drums like mine...

                               Dirt Track Doug,in exile, in S0-NeuYaWK

(who had a ball hangin out with ol' pal Dave Richards at the really fast, 
1/4 mile  Speedway Motorsickle races Saturday nite in Harpursville NY  -even 
if Dave did fall in the third turn LEADING all the kids around the track.  
He still got a third. He was bookin' kiddies!

BTW they use 185lb. motorsickles with 500cc singles on alky...
Daves is a twin cam four valve JAWA.  WhoooooM-Bah! )  Boy to be twenny 
again...

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