The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 1953 3100 w/235 - Upgrading disc brakes - keep 6 lug or go to 5 lug?

Hello all,

I'm new to the forum and to working on my 53 3100, with a 235. I plan on putting a disc brake kit on the front with the power brake booster, but I keep going back and forth on whether to go with the five lug kit or to go with the six lug kit to keep the front matched with the back.

Either way, I will probably be buying new smoothies. If anyone has any advice or can point out some pros/cons.

Also, this is a great forum and I have enjoyed reading and learning from the pro's!

Thank you

Todd, welcome to the Bolt. I would suggest you do some home work, what are your future plans for your truck? If your upgrading to disc, are you going change the rear end? Bolt patterns will vary 6 bolt/5 bolt, car/truck. 5 bolt car pattern will give you more wheel options. Get to a truck/car show and ask questions about what others have done to thier vehicles. Do a search on this site, lots of information here.
Phil

I went with cpp 6 lug disc brakes on my 50 chevy. If your using dish wheels that's the way I would go. It makes using a spare tire a lot easier,not having a 5lug and 6lug on front and rear.

Regarding the future of the truck, I've always wanted to keep the truck as close to stock as possible, but with a few upgrades. I'm not going to change the rear end at this point, but will need to do something to get me past the 55 MPH mark in the future.

There are 15x8 smoothies on the truck now, not sure what the backspace on the wheels are, but they are currently a little rusty, replacing them necessary along with the brakes. Funny how with as much time as I have spent thinking about the upgrade, I never thought about the spare.....duh...

go with the 5 lug kit when you update the rear use a camero disc brake rear end just keep 2 spares for now they make repo caps to fit the smoothes

53fresno, Glad to see another 'bolter in the area, I'm from Sanger. I have used disc brakes on the straight axle both ways, with Canaro discs for 5 lugs and with later pickup stuff for 6 bolts. Either way works fine, but it's best to keep one spare so stay with the 6 lugs. There are plenty of wrecking yards that have the stuff to make the change, try Turners they have 10,000 cars. If it would help, call me 876-1728, I'm Don

If you are hoping to go much over 55 with the original rear end all you can do is change the ring and pinion, which ain't cheap. Once you get it done you still ain't gonna do much better than 3.55:1, which when combined with the original tranny will get you over 55 but if you've got any kind of a commute and are hoping to have a daily driver it might not be what you are hoping for. Maybe there is someone in your area with the 3.55 gears who'll let you take their truck for a ride on the highway before you make up your mind about the front brake conversion. If you don't like the 3.55 gears you'll be going for a newer axel, and 5 lugs are easier to find than 6 lugs in the right width and gear ratio.

Well, I think the only difference between the 5 and 6 lug kits is the hubs and discs, which shouldn't be that expensive or difficult to swap over once you install all the rest of the stuff, so I wouldn't sweat it that much. Go with whatever you think is going to work for you.

hubcap conversion

http://www.speedprint.com/Deves50/hubcapclips.php

keep them 6 lug
it sure doesn't sound like you're getting a camaro rear end w/ disc

I went with a five lug kit on my 54 for a couple reasons. The most obvious is having all the components, and especially the front wheel bearings, available over-the-counter at your local parts supplier.

The 6 lug kits use the stock hub, which more than likely is fitted with the ball-type bearings. These are fine for low speed, bias ply tires on stock width rims but if and when you add wider rims, radial tires and travel at higher speeds they can present problems. The replacement roller bearings are special order, expensive, and available only from mail-order vendors. I'd hate to be sitting beside the road with a bad bearing waiting for the UPS truck to show up in 3-5 business days.

The 5 lug kits use a fixed bearing spacer that stays with your spindle, a hub/rotor/bearing combo that you can purchase at most any parts supplier. The 5 lug conversion also pushes your rim center out an additional 1" which helps wider rims/fat tires clear the stock or upgraded tie rod ends. I run 235/70/15's on 15X7 rims w/4" backspacing on the front, with plenty of room to spare.

The downside of the 5 lug kits is that if you are planning on keeping a stock rim setup with the original hub caps you might be looking at some custom machine work to retain the "stock" appearance.

As several pointed out, if your plans are to drive your truck on the modern highway and open up your drivetrain there are plenty of diffs with 5 lug 4-3/4" bolt patterns that give you taller R&P ratios, posi and discs. The 2nd and 3rd generation Camaro's (5 lug-62" wide) are my preferred donors, are relatively inexpensive, available, and you can find low mileage units with your preferred ratio.

I hope this helps you with your decision.

Dave

I went with a CCP 5 lug kit on the front end of my 51. For the rear I used a 9" Ford diffy out of a 78 Lincoln Mark VI. This diffy already had discs so I have discs all the way around. I used the stock master cylinder from the Lincoln and made a bracket to mount the master cylinder in the stock location under the floorboard. I am not using any power assist the the brakes work GREAT--power assist is not needed. The pedal ratio on a stock Chevy pedal is around 10:1.

My only problem is that my front lugs are 5 X 4.75 and the rear pattern is 5 X 5. Drilling the front rotors to 5 X 5 did not appear practical so I will redrill the rear axles for 5 X 4.75. I may also pick up some mag wheels that have a universal bolt pattern. After the shop is done I will get started on this project.

Thank you to all that have replyed to this post. I choose the 6 lug kit with booster from CPP as it was on sale last month and the best price I could find. Now comes the task of getting the kit and new brake lines on the truck.

Another question: I'm thinking of trying to do the brake lines myself, even though I have never done them (low on $). Any suggestions? Should I just save up and buy the lines from one of the AD retailers?

You can buy a hand bender tool and the flaring tool for the lines at the part store, I think. It just takes a gentle touch when you are first messing with it.... last time I had anything to do with running a brake line anyway.

I think inline tube or classic tube, maybe both sell pre bent shaped like stock lines, check there sites, linked here:

http://woogeroo.googlepages.com/brakes.html

good luck.

-W

If you buy pre-bent lines make sure they are for a truck with dual master, not a stock brake system. Most the lines you buy pre-bent are going to need to be modified to work with your new disk brakes.

I bent up new lines myself for my system. It did take some work and I had to buy some tools, but I think I spent about the same as a pre-bent set, but was able to customize the lines for my system.