The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Stay with Huck brakes on 1 ton?

I finally got the rear brakes off of my 46 tonner. Now the question is whether to keep it original or upgrade to Bendix or disc? I know others have had some success at this but I can no longer find the proper posts.

Are any of these swaps straight forward or do they all require some moderate axle work(or new axle,) welding, part searching? I'm thinking there is no "off the shelf parts" with some minor tweaking available for the rears?

I have no complaints with the Huck brakes on my 51 1 Ton. They are large and work really well.

all of my trucks are hucks. no problem here. when adjusted propely they will throw you tru the window.

From what I've read, the Bendix parts will fit the Huck backing plate.

Well adjusted Huck brakes work great. The issue is that they require more frequent adjustment than the Bendix type, replacement parts are more expensive and they are prone to fade more so than the Bendix type.

I have not heard of brake fade being a problem with the Huck brakes. They do most of the braking with the front shoes when going forwward so naturally the front shoes wear faster than the trailing shoes.

Part of the reason for looking into different options was the rarity of finding parts for these. I might be able to reuse the drums but if I can't....? I also noticed that the PO snapped the star adjusters from the bolt. That would have to be rewelded. I'd be interested in learning more of a direct Bendix replacement. Want years of donor vehicles would I be looking for? I believe this has a HO72 rear end.

I've been fiddling with swapping hubs and brakes from 14 bolts and Eaton rears. GM has a 13x2.5 Drum that is only 5.1" deep that was used on G30 vans that may be an easy swap.

Chris

Most of the huck brake parts I had were either damaged or missing. I either couldn't obtain the parts or the cost was prohibitive. Most of the time I couldn't obtain the parts at any price - unavailable.

I used 1982 Chevrolet 3/4" ton 2WD backing plates, drums, shoes, and all new hardware. You need to use the 4 5/8" width drum. These bolt right up to the HO52 rearend. I used 1952 Chevrolet dually wheel studs (because the new drum is much thicker). Use an adapter to make the new wheel cylinders from the brake line work. I needed new brake lines anyway, so I made a slight modification; not a big deal. I have parking brakes now, and everything looks stock. This will give you 13" brakes with easily obtainable parts. Best yet, all parts including the drum are now 100% new, not rebuilt.

For the front brakes, I used 1955.1 GMC 1 ton spindles on the 1952 3/4 ton axle. I used a 1 ton kingpin kit with a thrust bearing for the 1952 3/4 ton (match the bearing to your axle, not the spindle.) I have the more readily available 1953-up wheel bearings, and 12" Bendix brakes on the front. Parts are easier to find and are typically lower cost.

I think the above post by 52Dave3600 would make an excellent Tech Tip. The biggest problem with the old Huck brakes is getting certain parts, especially the drums.

Now for my question: dave, what did you do to hook up the old brake cables to the newer style brakes?

I didn't have parking brake cables for 1952 Chevrolet 3/4 ton, so I bought new ones. Jim Carters had them on the shelf. All I had to do was spiral off the spring from the new cables and spiral on the cable from the old 1982 3/4 ton cables. If you don't have the old original clevis yokes, or they are broken, you need to use a coupling nut and a length of threaded rod to make an extension where is hooks up to the parking brake cable crossbar. The reason is you need to use model clevis yokes which are much shorter in length.

Other than that, it's completely simple to do. I had to do this because my huck brake setup was missing all the parking brake components. This ended up working very well and was very easy to do. The research was 99% of the work.

Yes, I should write a tech tip on this. My goal was late model plentiful parts that could be purchased at any parts store if I needed any on a trip. If they weren't stocked at the store, the parts store down the street would have them, or they could be ordered for the later that day/the next morning.