Thread: Question re. disc brakes on '40 Ford spindles

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Well Brian you know I am not running yet even though we started about the same time three years ago. I am currently sort of stuck looking at wires in a cold garage waiting for Spring, but for what it is worth I was able to put disk brakes on a 5" dropped axle with '37-'48 spindles. I used a Speedway "Econo Kit". Speedway shows three different kits and I don't recall which one I used but it did not require any machining, it was a simple bolt-on kit. The thing to do is just call Speedway on their 800 line and tell them what you want to do; the kit is probably in the $200-220 price range.The rotors appear to be from Dodge and the caliphers from '78-up midsize GM. Clearly the "kit" is a nightmare of kluged parts that somehow fit together but the beauty of the kit is that they have figured it out for you. I am pleased with the ready availablility of the rotors and caliphers and it went together easily but the combination of parts for the wheel bearings was strange and I kept all the parts boxes to remember what the wheel bearings are. With the kit my 14" rims fit fine and so far the only use of the brakes has been going off a flat bed as I haul it around to various shops, most recently to a muffler shop for 2 1/4" pipes, H connection and turbo mufflers. I put this kit together back in the beginning of the project when my optimism was high and the accumulated costs were low but it was a joy to put the front end together since I have wanted a dropped axle since first reading about them when I was 15! In retrospect a 4" drop might have been better but my country home driveway (about 350' of gravel) will probably get smoothed out with the 5" drop!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/Teen rodder