Thread: parts help

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I have a front axle from a '49 Ford F1 p/u truck. It now has 5 x 5 1/2" lug spacing. I have a rear axle from a Chevy S-10 which has 5 x 4 3/4" spacing. I would like to put S-10 front hubs/rotors on the Ford axle. Anyone know what I would need for bearings to make this work? I know Speedway has a kit to convert from the Ford spindle/hubs to Chevy discs/hubs, but I'd rather not spend the money for the kit. I can find s-10 parts cheaper if I can find what bearings (and seals) are needed. Otherwise, looks like the Speedway kit. I enjoy this website tremendously. I never dreamed there were so many talented (and resourceful) people out there! Thanks. Perley

There's not that many cup and cone size combos really. If you have the cup outside dia. and the cone inner dia where it goes on the spindle, a common bearing set can likely be matched up. If you have a seal and bearing place to go to, the catalog or computor should have the sizes. The bearings come in sets, A set, B set, and so on. I just don't have the measured sizes for you, sorry. An older parts guy quite often can rhyme this stuff off from memory. Not sure what a guy could find on the internet, on the subject. With a little searching, you might be able to save yourself a few bucks. Sniper

Sniper has summed it up pretty well, Perley. Take a mike and figure out what OD your spindles are, and then mike the ID of the rotor (sans bearing and race) and take those figures to a good bearing house. They should be able to supply an inside and outside bearing set with an OD to match the inside of the rotor and an ID to match up with the spindle OD.

One possiblility though, the spindles may need machined to shorten them and turn the OD to work with the rotors you want to use. Not sure about that, but a good measurement will confirm if that is needed.

Don

Often when swapping newer style bearings onto old Ford spindles, you run in to a problem with the radius where the bearing sits not allowing the bearing to set back properly. A second or two with a small grinder or Dremel tool puts a taper on the backside of the bearing and fixes it.

A friend of mine did it on his 37. He is a machinist and I think he ended up machining a spacer because the rotor went on too far.

Thanks to you all for the replys. Sniper --- thanks, I sent an inquiry last week to Speedway asking for info on their swap kit. The Gent who responded writes that they use 73-77 GM cars' rotors which use Set 2 and Set 13 bearings. That didn't mean anything to me until your reply. Now I can go to a parts store to compare. I also don't know if the S-10 rotors are the same size diameter as the aforementioned GM. If it weren't for the core, I could shop for the GM rotors. I don't have any of them. I know a scrapper that has lots of rotors but not identified as to what they came from. I am going to check soon on a Ford rearend that's on a Ford pickup truck. If the tread width is right, I may get it and use it instead of the S-10 rear. That would give me the same wheel lug pattern on both rear and front. Then I might not worry about changing to discs, but leave the '49 drum set up, renewed with modern parts of course. hmmmmmm. Life is full of decisions. The problem is I frequently make the wrong ones!!!!! Thanks again. Hi to Don from the 3D garage. Perley

I think you are right about the spacer. Years ago I bought a bunch of stuff from a speedshop that was closing and among it was a disc brake conversion kit for early Ford spindles. There were two cylindrical spacers in the box that you slid onto the spindles first, and they had a raised portion toward the inside so that the bearing would come up against it and stop, effectively shortening the spindle to the correct dimensions of the rotor.

Don

Many thanks again all. I did some research in-town today and I find that there would not be a significant monetary advantage to buy locally especially when there is a likelyhood of the spindle spacer problem. So, I will order from Speedway when the time comes. I guess I can assume that this kit has all the needed parts and the right combos to fit the '49 spindles. And for the little bit of price difference, it's worth peace of mind to have that. That is, if the Ford axle doesn't turn out, then it's a different game! One day I am going to sit down and figure out what and how to do to start a build thread here on our two projects. Yah, I'm a fool toooooo! Perley

Originally Posted by willowbilly3

A friend of mine did it on his 37. He is a machinist and I think he ended up machining a spacer because the rotor went on too far.

I talked to him yesterday and he used the S10 bearings and just made a spacer to go behind them because the spindle is too long. You could put it under the nut but you probably wouldn't get the dust cap on.