The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Tons 'o Fun 1 ton rear brake questions

I spent most of last night banging on the rear brake drum on "Howard Knapp" a 1 ton I picked up earlier this year...It has some funny looking wheel cylinders...I think they are called "huck" style...very large toothed looking things hanging off each end of the wheel cylinder...wheel cylinder has about what looks like 1.38" bore on it too...
My newbie questions for tonight..rock auto appears to sell rear wheel cylinders but the pictures dont look like what I currently have (no weird looking adjusters mounted on the wheel cylinder)....also the rear spring that holds the shoes together is in like 3 pieces..
So where do you 1 ton guys purchase these parts?? or do I just go find a newer 8 lug Chevy truck rear end and swap the backing plates and install a more modern style rear braking system??

Any insight would be wonderful...

MikeC

Mike -- What year truck are you talking about?

I recently did the rears on my '49 1-ton with the Huck brakes and found them to be fairly easy and straightforward. The wheel cylinders can be found at Jim Carter's (see our Links Section) or American Classic (I think). You have to go to the specialty parts suppliers because the bigbox chain stores don't sell to "our kind" You should be able to get everything except for the shoes -- those you will have to find used/NOS or find a way to get them relined (if you can). You can't get new drums, either. So don't have your drums turned. That's just wasting good metal on parts they don't make anymore.

The adjusters just crank with a wrench ... It's not hard. It's actually easier to adjust the Huck brakes than the newer style, IMHO. But what do I know ... Usually other Stovebolters come here and take wrenches away from me. But if I can do it, you can! No need to go to the expense and trouble of upgrading already good braking systems. Then again, not that I'm an expert on brakes -- I still run a tractor trailer truck with wedge brakes (Gasp! Shriek!!). They haven't killed me yet

Do you have a shop manual? If not, get one! And read it! Saves asking a lot of (potentially) embarrassing questions ...

John

john,i have dealt with brakes:bendix on bikes to 40 hours a week on semis.i dont feel im an expert.wedge brakes are ok but they do need more attention (my dad the master mechanics words).most old truck brakes are good,the best place to look is surface area.next is preasure, as far as any upgrades.i spent all resources finding out what i could make my rigs do,all stock.i had 12 witneses to what i could make a 292 6 do.short version 6 grand and 140+,that move cost me 3 months and $750.00.any ways if stock isnt good enough maybe time to examine what you expect your rig to do

Hi Wots50

For the sake of getting more easier to find parts would it be easier to swap out the backing plates from 67-72 Chevy truck with that 8 lug bolt pattern and then just get all those parts instead of trying find all these hard to find drums and cylinders and all the other associated springs and clips too??

I am not sure if it is feasible or not...just wondering what some of the more knowledgeable guys have done... I would love to be able to go to my local NAPA store and get brake parts for it....

MikeC

If you decide to swap brakes I'd swap the entire rear axle for a 14 bolt from a dual wheel "cab and chassis" GM pickup. That model is the correct width, then run single wheels on it.
Additional advantage is you can pick from any number of gear ratios, and they're cheap.

I would give a strong second on John's remarks of getting the rebuild kits from the suggested online sites. Getting the brakes done was step one for me and easy enough for a newcomer. The spring you mentioned may seem a little harder find, but they're available. I get most of my stuff from Jim Carter's.
We'd also love to see a pic of your ride!

Hi Mike, If you decide to swap out the rear end I would be interested in buying the backing plate from the driver side if it is the same as mine. What year is your 1 ton? Thank you, Gerry Lee

Hi everybody

Oh my gosh I love this place...below is a couple of photos of "Howard Knapp" the day he came to hang out at my place...
[IMG]http://i226.photobucket.com/al...y%20truck/100_6876_zpsf284d6d3.jpg[/IMG]
Another view
[IMG]http://i226.photobucket.com/al...y%20truck/100_6875_zpsc3e2a113.jpg[/IMG]I was told by the fellow that I bought it from is it came from somebodies ranch out in New Mexico, he bought it to resell from his place in Indiana...The plan right now is to replace what was there with original stuff brake wise...rear end gears will be 4.10's I boguth from a fellow in Kansas who was parting out a 1972 Chevy truck...
MikeC

A little change of plans...I spent most of this evening banging on the passenger side drum and it ended up splitting so now the plan is a newer model GM truck rear end and maybe a 1/2 ton or 3/4 ton front axle so I can put more modern day disc brakes on it...
I have a set of 4.10 gears for that rear end if anybody wants to purchase them from me...

MikeC

PM sent, do you still have 4:10's?

Hi And Merry Christmas, I am also interested in the 4:10 gears. Also the rear driver side break backing plate. Thank you, Gerry Lee

All,
This is not a parts for sale thread, or the correct place for one. Please restrict such questions to private messages. You can also post and reply about such things in the Swap Meet section, both wanted to buy and parts for sale as appropriate.

Thanks,
Grigg

all you need to worry about on rear end swap is,axle width,drive line,parkin brake,gear ratios(for tryin to get accurate speedo).for rear swap,if ya move spring pads to right width,all should be startin to work.gl to ya