The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Front Suspension Advice- Brakes?

I have been doing a lot of searching on here and need some advice from others that have gone through the process of upgrading the front suspension on the Task Force series of trucks. I have a '57 3100 with an unknown small block 350, and still running original front and rear suspension.

My initial concerns with the truck are the effort with braking, a groan that occurs sometimes after a lot of braking, brake fade and overall wandering of the front end. I figured the first thing to figure out is what to do with brakes. Swap from drum to disc? If I did I would want to stay with 6 bolt, and I know there are kits from braket only all the way to calipers, rotors etc. I have also read on here about higher performance drums and shoes.... advice? Current drums do not look bad, nor shoes bad, I just hate to have an "incident" on Woodward Ave!

Also, what about master cylinders and power? I have read conflicting back and forth on the need for both, etc. I do not want to mount anything under the hood, so I would stay under the frame. Thanks guys!

I do know that there are brake boosters available that are designed for our trucks. They snug up right under the cab and next to the frame. Sorry that I can't help ya with the other stuff though.

57,
You will probably find as many opinions as there are replacement kits out there. You can make the stock brakes perform OK with new parts. It all depends on the intended use. After rebuilding and/or replacing everything on the stock system I still did not have the confidence to compete with the maniacs on the So Cal freeways. Ultimately I upgraded to a 5 lug front disc brake system with a dual diaphram booster, dual master cylinder & proportioning valve (mounted under the truck). I don't hesitate to drive it anywhere.
Fred

With Bendix style drum brakes with good cylinders and shoes your truck should stop adequately under general circumstances.

If you are hauling heavy loads or running high speeds or your driving includes lots of quick stops with little cooling time between, you might want disk brakes.

Most disk brake vehichles have a power booster. This is because disk brakes do not help you apply the brakes the same way Bendix drum brakes do.

If you stay drum you probably won't benefit from power brakes. Go disk and you are more likely to want them.

Evaluate your drums and lines before you commmit either way.

My own truck now has 5-lug hubs all the way around, with disks on the front, and a dual master but no power booster.

It stops fine but I can tell it does not have the power brakes of my other vehicles. It feels uncomfortable when pulling a trailer because of the pressure I have to apply to stop it. Someday I'll probably upgrade to power, but most likely that will be after I install a V-8 and automatic too.

Thanks for the quick responses as well as advice.

After thinking about it more and more, I am leaning towards changing over to front disc with power. I guess if I do the whole thing at once I will never second guess the system and it is unlikely I will worry about having too much capability. My driving will limited for the most part to low speed crusing in heavy traffic, so not a lot of time to cool the drums down which I think is my problem now.

I am curious how difficult it would be to come up with my own set up of rotor and caliper that will use the stock hub and spindles and keep the 6 bolt set up. Where do I start with something like this? I have seen the full kits from CPP and such, but have been unable to determine what they use of parts, and really would like to make this as robust as possible, and maybe even come up with something that I have designed. I know the late model Chevy trucks are still 6 bolt so I wonder if something from a full size truck, Trailblazer or even an SSR or such would work?

Any guidance on where to look/ learn/ find the answers?

Think carefully about what wheels you want to use as you choose hubs, disks and calipers. If you want to use stock wheels its difficult to find calipers that fit inside the wheel.

The most recent wheels are probably metric so those disks might not be easy to use unless you go with current type wheels.

Just a couple quick thoughts...

I am currently doing a disk brake swap on my 50 Chevy 3100. Keeping the 235 engine in it and put in a t5 transmission and a posi rear end. The kit I bought was only about 125.00 and thats for the brackets and conversion bearings. Very simple to put in. If you have deep pockets, you can buy a complete setup for around 600-800. I opted for the cheaper route. The rotors were only 16.00 each from a local parts house, loaded calipers were about 25.00 each and hoses were about 50.00 for the pair. Also had to get outer bearings and dust covers. The conversion uses 73-77 GM mid-size car parts and the kits are available from various AD truck part suppliers (I think I bought mine from www.truckandcarshop.com) I also got a bracket for a power booster and master cylinder from www.jwrodgarage.com they have the masters and the power boosters there. Then bought a proportioning valve and residual valves from ebay (2lb for the front and 10lb for the rear drums) you need those to stop the brake fluid from draining back to the master since it's lower than the calipers and cylinders. (also firms up the pedal for a better brake response). The kit uses the original brake pedal. And everything pretty much bolts right in. Check my project journal, I am currently doing that conversion right now and updating the journal almost every week. http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/journal.php?s=&journalid=22733&action=view If you have any questions, drop me a note! I'd be glad to help.

Sonic,
When you changed did you maintain the 6 bolt lug pattern or are you now at 5? I like the idea you have, but I have not seen that level of information available on 6 bolt which had me thinking that unless I buy the whole kit [too much $$] I would need to develop my own list of calipers, rotors, bearinss and design the brackets.
Hopefully this is much easier than I am making it out to be and someone else has done this on a 57!

57,
I don't know of any of these kit suppliers that will tell you what parts they put into a kit. Once you know you don't need them anymore. The six lug kit is available from a variety of vendors, most use a 12" rotor and calipers from probably 73-87 van or 4X4. They recommend using your existing hub and changing over to timken bearings. This kit can get fairly pricy and generally will not work with stock wheels.
I used the 5 lug conversion. I was fortunate to obtain the 11" rotors, calipers, & hoses from a 74 Malibu donor car, bought a bracket kit and bolted them right on. I had a machinist re-drill the rear axles to match the car bolt pattern. Either way you have to buy wheels, might as well get something more common. I also had the stock hubcaps modified to fit the aftermarket wheels.
Fred

Hmmm, not what I was hoping to learn.... but that is the way it goes with the old truck I guess!

I actually already have modern 6 bolt 15" rims, so I am not interested in changing the front to 5 bolt. Plus from what I can see 6 bolt is becoming the norm on the newer chevy trucks from the mid size on up, so I suspect there are even more rims to choose from now?

If anyone has done the 6 bolt disc brake conversion, please let me know!!!

I did switch to 5 lug all around the truck. This gave me the option of running the rims that I wanted. I also dropped the back 3 inches, and will have to drop the front to get the stance I want. I included some photos below.

[img]http://hotrodders.com/journal_photos/00022733/11779024862.jpg[/img]


[img]http://hotrodders.com/journal_photos/00022733/11779024861.jpg[/img]