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Wondering who all bought the disc brake kit from Speedway Motors. Looking to hear your thoughts on the kit (ie fit, finish, quality, etc). Ive heard that it is (as well as looks like, the brackets at least) the Classic Performance Products kit just with remanufactured brake calipers. Thoughts?

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/p/4622,967_Deluxe-Disc-Brake-Kits-1947-1959-Chevy-1and2-Ton-Pick-Up.html

And yes I know this is a 1/2 ton kit that Im am looking at for my 52 3/4 ton. I have a 1/2 ton axle that I am going to be swapping in as this truck will not be hauling any heavy loads so Im not worried about load capacity.


Thanks!

i waited for a sale from one of the vendors
brothers was the first sale.
so i went w/ them. got the 6 lug to match my new 12 bolt rear end. got the master power brake set up also.
i believe they are made by one company and most seem to be the same. hopefully others will chime in.

Ps I had no issues w/ brothers kit.
Pss BUFFALO Ent. ~Steve developed these kits when he lived and had a shop in sacramento years ago. he never did any kind of patend. toooo baaaad

The kit does look like CPP's kit. Cpp does include hoses with their kit though. Cpp's kit uses remanufactured calipers as well.

There are more than one kit manufactures, you can tell by looking at their brackets. They are not all the same. CPP's brackets are all the gold anodized finish and have been ground on both sides. They look very nice.

I just did a 6 lug CPP kit and I was not happy with the bracket quality. The offset bends were not right and required a couple of hours of tweeking to get them right. Also the spacer plate was not drilled correctly. I had to weld up the counter sunk holes and redrill and counter sink them. About four hours of work.

In hind sight I would have bought a bracket only kit from Buffalo Engineering. That way I would have been in control of the quality of the rotors and calipers.

ECI,Inc in Connecticut has the kit you want.

Speedway does sell CPP's kit. I bought mine though them. Clearancing was required on the caliper ( though I forget what for at th e moment and on the bracket. This would seem odd though being that the kit is specific to those trucks.

Thanks for the replies, I will take a look at the kits from Buffalo and ECI when the time comes.

Im getting a bonus from my work for $250 in the next few weeks and was thinking of using that money for the disc brake kit, but after much thought I decided to hold off on the kit and get something that I could use a bit more at the moment for the truck. My truck isn't mobile at the moment (or at least road worthy) and currently does have rebuilt front drum brakes from the previous owner. I have no doubt they should be more than up to the challenge for just driving it up and down my dirt road and around the yard. So Im going to look into getting the supllies needed to switch my welder over to gas from flux core for the body work and such that needs to be done before the upgrades.

Im still open to suggestions and comments on disc brake kits as I will be looking to purchase one in the future.

Thanks Again

Also while we are on the subject of brakes and customization, I got a pedal assembly (w/ booster and master cylinder) from a mid 80's suburban that I am going to be mounting on the firewall in my 52 and have a few questions about the swap.

1. Because of the switch to a dual master cylinder and later to front disc brakes, what is the best way to run the brake lines.

Is 2 circuits fine (1 to the rear which splits to both drums and 1 to the front which splits to both drums (later calipers). Or would 1 circuit to the rear (spliting out back to both drums) and 2 circuits to the front (both front drums/discs have their own line back to the master cylinder) be better.

2. For now Im just going to plumb the system for drum brakes all the way around and add in the porportioning valve when I swap out the drums for discs. The suburban had disc's in the front and a porportioning valve mounted on the frame with 2 lines running to it from the master cylinder. It then had 1 line going to the rear drums and then seperate lines going to the front discs. My question is, the master cylinder will now be going to drum brakes only, is there any type of valve that needs to be inline before the drums? The line coming out of the master cylinder going to the disc side of the porportioning valve was bigger then the line for the drums. Can this larger line still be used for the run to the front drums?

I hate to be a pain, but brakes isn't something to fool around with and Id like to get it right the first time.

Thanks a ton!

Question for caroline and wbrowne regarding the Brother's and ECI Inc. disc brake conversion kits(respectivly).
Are you running 15" or 16" wheels? Wheel type, original or aftermarcket? Tire sizes? Did thier use require wheel spacers for fitting? Finally, non-boosted or power boosted MC?
Cavebull

I am currently running drums on all for and have not used a porportioning valve I don't know if it was necessary but I fornd I had the realcyl going to the front brakes. Didn't work well. IO switched the lines for a big improvement. I also will look at ECI this winter for the change over on the front. I know the valve will be needed there. Is it simpler to use the adjustable one or will a stock valve work just as well??

Hi cavebull - To answer your disk brake question. You use 15" with the ECI kit. The rotors are 11" 5 lug Chevelle with a 5x 4 3/4" bolt pattern. You use modern wheels for disk brakes. Most old style '40's-early '60's wheels won't fit because of clearance problems with the capilers. I used manual master cylinder.


To gazim - you don't need a proportioning valve if you are using drum brakes all around. You need proportioning valve if you have disk brake front and drum brake rear. Go to website for Master Power Brakes.com They have a lot of info there.

My advice is to go on one of the aftermarket disk brake suppliers, ECI I think has a good/ clear easy to read instructions and read completly as it relates to your truck. One of the many things to consider is if the wheel cyls are parallel to the MC if they are you need either 10 lb residual valves near the MC for durm/drum brakes or for disk/drum 2 lb for the front disks and 10 for the the rear. Replace the MC with a Corvette unit. Many things to consider, none more important to do your brake system correctly.

There's been a lot of discussion over the years regarding residual valves. ECI and Master Power Brakes will tell you to use residual valves when the MC is located under the floor. I have 2 trucks with the MC mounted under the floor and I use no residual valves. I have a '54 Chevy panel, power brakes with disk brake front and drum rear and I use a proportioningl valve. I built this truck 19 years ago and the brakes work great.
I also have a '48 Chevy pick up that has a manual MC ( '69 Corvette) and drum brakes front and rear. I put the residual valves in and experienced a poor brake pedal. I took the residual vales out and replaced them. Still a poor pedal. I replaced the residual valves for a 3rd time, still poor. At that point I took the residual valves out and the brakes work great.

57PU:
Good advice, I will look for the install instructions.

Mr. wbrowne n all:
So where are the wheel clearence issues with most of these disc brake converstions? Depth? Is this something a wheel spacer can sometimes cover or huge need for wheel back space that the OEM 6" wheel does not provide - width, in which a 16" wheel may clear when a 15" may not? Should I assume both?
Oh, I did call ECI and we talked about 6 lug option discs, liked what I heard... sounds logical... maybe they will send me the instructions.
As always, thnaks for your time, thoughts, and ideas.
Cavebull

Generally the reason that the stock 15" wheels will not work is that the inside of the wheel does not have enough clearance between it and the outside of the caliper on most 6 lug kits.
We recently installed a 6 lug kit on a 55 Cameo that enabled us to use the stock wheels. It has 11" rotors and does not use the stock hubs. The kit was purchased from ABS and everything fit correctly.
Fred

Thanks Fred,

Do you have email or full name for ABS? Searches are not working.
I am working on a 46 - the reason for all the questions. I anticipate a mod or two to any brake conversion kit regsrdless. Just want to minimze all of them as much as possible.
BTW, I have 16" OEM wheels on the truck.
Brett

im just starting out looking for brake parts for my 1950 chevy 3/4 ton and im thinking about going to disc are there any kits out there that will convert

No kits for 3/4 ton.

looking now thanks

Well,,, ECI didn,t have anything for trucks, and Master power did but wanted $1000. guess I wlll shop some more. ABSpower brake looks promising at $685 but can't find a picture of what I want. Dropped spindals,disc.without the master and booster.(already instaled) Guess I will call them.

Question for caroline and wbrowne regarding the Brother's and ECI Inc. disc brake conversion kits(respectivly).
Are you running 15" or 16" wheels? Wheel type, original or aftermarcket? Tire sizes? Did thier use require wheel
spacers for fitting? Finally, non-boosted or power boosted MC?
Cavebull

we bought a set of 5, 6 lug jeep rims to fit the front disc brakes & no spacers, drum rear. as you know the standard rims will not work. we're running 15'' wheels, have a 12 bolt rear end /6 lug to match. when we bought the disc kit we also got the tapered wheel bearings as well as the power master cyl which came w/ the proportioning valve. i installed every line w/ a spring covering. the springs were surplus 60cents each. i stretched them to 2' so they protect the brake lines from rocks.

http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h298/1951otter/?action=view&current=DSC00313.jpg
http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h298/1951otter/?action=view&current=DSC00327.jpg
http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h298/1951otter/?action=view&current=DSC00329.jpg
http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h298/1951otter/?action=view&current=DSC00493_0007.jpg

Anyone had dealings with POL (performance online)? they advertise in classic trucks mag. Have a goodlooking complete kit for about 600+shipping.

Hi! Gazim
I purchased the p/brake kit for my 57 3200 p/u & just started to install it, I also purchased the p/steering kit from them. They are very helpful, I talked with Arron & Mike. I will let you know how I make out if you want & sent photo’s as I do it, E-mail me.

Later Phil

feel free to post your experience here, as well as pictures so we all can see

Thanks Phil, will be waiting your pic's and comentary.

Hi! All
Trying to post photos having trouble setting up a place to put the photos & post them.
My nick name for computers is OBD my son will help me this weekend.
Later Phil

Hi! All
Trying to post photos having trouble setting up a place to put the photos & post them.
My nick name for computers is OBD my son will help me this weekend.
Later Phil

That is one of my problems too. Too old to learn but there are several here that will help you like they did me.