The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 55 3/4 ton 8 lug brake and wheel options options

I am fixing up a 1955 chevy 3/4 truck with 8 lug bolt pattern.

I want to do a brake upgrade of some sort but I don't have enough money to do a frame or a independent suspension swap on the truck. It seems like there aren't too many options for disk brakes for the 3/4 ton but lots for 1/2 ton truck

Maybe the easiest is buy a new master brake cylinder and freshen up the brake shoes with new hardware and brake cylinders?

My concerns are how well did the stock brake system work, where do I find parts for the stock brakes (remember 3/4 ton)

Do I have any other options?

Also what do people think of the split rims and is there are tire options or another rim options that still keeps the 8 lug

thanks!

If your stock brakes are in good working order you will have no break issues. For safety you could update to a dual chamber master cylinder. Many of the suppliers sell the kit to make this conversion. I see that your in Minnesota, you can get brake parts from Brake and Equipment Warehouse in Minneapolis. You can probably get parts from Napa also.

http://www.brakeandequipment.com/

On my 51 1 Ton, I can lock the wheels easily, if I want to. Of course I wouldn't want to waste expensive rubber. The only problem is that the rear brakes are larger and more powerful than the front ones. That would work great under a big load but it is not so great with no load and a slippery surface.

I think the only thing you can't get for you're truck are the rear drums every thing else you can get from a FLAPS shoes,springs wheel cyl.s. I redid the breaks on my 53 3/4 ton GMC and was lucky because the drums cleaned up nice.I also rebuilt the master cyl. with a kit from Clasic Parts .I also run a 52 Chevy 1/2 ton and both my trucks will lock up the wheels .

Pete

This is good news to hear and good to know there are still suppliers. So the plan is then to do a stock rebuild of the brakes. I am sure the drums can be machined a little cleaner and I will just put on new lines wheel cylinders shoes and hardware kit. I will probably put on a dual cylinder because they are pretty reasonable.

So how about wheels? What are people running for 8 lug rims? Are people who restore still running split rims? Or did they find another rim?

Split rims - get rid of them. There are companies that make trailer rims with a good offset that do a nice job. Be careful of the offset due to the clearance to the front tie-rods.

Here are the trailer rims that we are talking about. They work great for me on my 1 Ton. Dexstar Trailer Wheels Note the customer comments about them being perfect for the 54 Chev 3600 Truck.

Just to update on finds,

Brake Master and Equipment were happy to help however...

They don't have the hardware kit and they can re pad the shoes but can't get me new ones.

I am going to take apart the brakes and see what condition they are in but I kind of suspect that they aren't going to be in the greatest of shape.

Classic parts doesn't carry the hardware kit and it looks like they only carry the 3/4 ton 4wd shoes, they do carry new drums front and rear for the 3/4 ton

wheel cylinders are available also

So it is just the hardware kit and maybe new shoes

This site claims to have brake shoes for the 55 3/4 ton. Do these look right?

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,carcode,1326372,parttype,1688

And these folks have some as well as the kits.

http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/ca/full.aspx?Page=94

Unless I have missed what you are looking for? Done that plenty of times.