Brake parts for a 1957 9"?

[65ShelbyClone]

I mainly need some new 11 x 2" drums and even the best brake supply in town doesn't have any part numbers listed...at least for that early of a year. The rear is a small-bearing 9" out of a '57-58 Custom 300.

Does anyone here know what other cars or trucks used the same part? The later the model year, the better.

 

[Pbum5]

I have a 50's 9" in my car also.

If you dont have any of the parts, it might a good time to swap to a rear disc setup.

That's what i did.

 

[65ShelbyClone]

My old man has a parts-car '57 Custom he'll let me have the brake parts from, but I'm reluctant to put new shoes(which are easy to get) on old nasty drums. I also have the car torn apart in the driveway and it's blocking another in the garage, so I need this thing back together in the next day or two.

I'm sure Ford used the same or similar drums on other cars from later years, I just need to know what they are so I can have the parts place look them up.

 

[ultrastang]

I mainly need some new 11 x 2" drums and even the best brake supply in town doesn't have any part numbers listed...at least for that early of a year. The rear is a small-bearing 9" out of a '57-58 Custom 300.

Does anyone here know what other cars or trucks used the same part? The later the model year, the better.

IF it had been a large bearing housing from station wagon or a Ranchero, you could have robbed the rear drum assemblies from a Ford half ton pickup [11" x 2¼"] to install on the big car rear end, and then re-drilled the truck drums for the correct 5-on-4½" lug spacing.

However, since it isn't from either of these, that means you have a small bearing housing. Did you check out the '65/'66 8-inch housing you said you had that was buried in some mud?


www.ultrastang.com

 

[fasttback]

I know this doesn't help you, but I do have a 1957 big bearing 9" with 11X2.25 drums that came from a early year Bronco (which requires no re-drilling drums for fitment).

I had a hard time finding these drums, and wished I had the small bearing rearend because all the rear disc brake kits were made for them. But now, everything is working fine.

 

[TOM B]

I think thunderbirds are the same ,try this site
http://www.classictbird.com/p6-9brakes.pdf

 

[ultrastang]

I think thunderbirds are the same ,try this site
http://www.classictbird.com/p6-9brakes.pdf

I'm unsure on the '57-'59 ford T-Birds whether they had large or small bearing housings, but I do know for a fact that the '60 T-Bird rear end I have is a large bearing housing.

This photo taken just a few minutes before I posted this;

1960 T-Bird 9-inch large bearing housing on left. 1959 Fairlane 9-inch small bearing housing on right: http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3947/tbirdfairlane9inchhousilr6.jpg


www.ultrastang.com

 

[danny clemens]

I'm sure you're right about other rears having the same size drums but if you can't find them you can take the drum setup off of an 8" rear and they swap perfectly.

 

[ultrastang]

I'm sure you're right about other rears having the same size drums but if you can't find them you can take the drum setup off of an 8" rear and they swap perfectly.

Being that the '57-'59 small bearing 9-inch rear ends are the same width as the '65/'66 Mustang's 8-inch rears (52¼" bare housing width), you could use the '65/'66 Mustang's axles and brake drums on the '57-'59 Ford small bearing 9-inch housing.

However, you can't use the 8-inch rear end's drums with the big car's axles. --Been there. Done that, and it won't work. If you use the drums from a 52¼" wide 8-inch rear end, you have to use the 8-inch rear end's axles too.

If you use the small bearing axles from the '57-'59 big car 9-inch rear end, then you have to have the drums for the '57-'59 big car to work with the big car's axles.

www.ultrastang.com

 

[65ShelbyClone]

Did you check out the '65/'66 8-inch housing you said you had that was buried in some mud?

Yeah I did. Turns out my 65 notchback had a 67-68 rear end under it! The rear wheels stuck out a little bit when I got it, but I thought it just had the wrong backspacing. Later a Versailles rear and Torque Thrusts went on, both at the same time, and then the wheels looked right. I didn't find out that the rear end itself was the problem until last week when I compared the 8" axle to the 9's and saw that they were each 1" too long.

I'm pulling the brakes off my old man's '57 Custom right now and I might be able to clean the drums up enough to use. I'd still like to find some new 11x2 drums for later, though.

The bottom half of that catr was also buried in the flood that covered up the 8".

EDIT: I wrote the above reply probably two hours ago and forgot to post before I finished getting the '57 brakes.

In the process of cleaning up the drums that came off the '57, I figured I would a hang some calipers down inside the friction area. Guess what? they came out to just a hair over 2.375", indicating that they are not 11x2, but closer to 11x2 1/4 or 2 1/2". They say FoMoCo on them too. I checked the pads and they are only 1.75".

I'm sure you're right about other rears having the same size drums but if you can't find them you can take the drum setup off of an 8" rear and they swap perfectly.

That's why I'm in this mess, because I didn't listen to ultrastang before tearing my stuff apart. Like he said, you have to use Mustang axles in the 9" housing if you want to keep the Mustang brakes. The '57 axles are about 1/4" shorter between the axle face and the bearing.

 

[ultrastang]

Yeah I did. Turns out my 65 notchback had a 67-68 rear end under it! The rear wheels stuck out a little bit when I got it, but I thought it just had the wrong backspacing. Later a Versailles rear and Torque Thrusts went on, both at the same time, and then the wheels looked right. I didn't find out that the rear end itself was the problem until last week when I compared the 8" axle to the 9's and saw that they were each 1" too long.

I'm pulling the brakes off my old man's '57 Custom right now and I might be able to clean the drums up enough to use. I'd still like to find some new 11x2 drums for later, though.

The bottom half of that catr was also buried in the flood that covered up the 8".

EDIT: I wrote the above reply probably two hours ago and forgot to post before I finished getting the '57 brakes.

In the process of cleaning up the drums that came off the '57, I figured I would a hang some calipers down inside the friction area. Guess what? they came out to just a hair over 2.375", indicating that they are not 11x2, but closer to 11x2 1/4 or 2 1/2". They say FoMoCo on them too. I checked the pads and they are only 1.75".



That's why I'm in this mess, because I didn't listen to ultrastang before tearing my stuff apart. Like he said, you have to use Mustang axles in the 9" housing if you want to keep the Mustang brakes. The '57 axles are about 1/4" shorter between the axle face and the bearing.

Sorry for all your problems in this, but when we spoke of this before, I told you it wouldn't work because I knew this from my own personal experience (learned it the hard way) that it wouldn't work if the parts are mixed.

Not to be a cheesey high pressure saleman or anything, but if you ever decide to ditch the drums, I do have rear disc brake adapters to enable you to put a nice set of discs on your housing with your existing 9-inch axles.

www.ultrastang.com

 

[D.Hearne]

He can use the drums for an early 80's F100 on a different brake setup. There are oprions other than drilling drums. Lots of interchangeable drums out there, you just have to get the right combo. Find a setup for a different application that's got the same bolt pattern for the axle housing then if those drums have a different pattern, do a little digging for the correct drums to fit your bolt pattern. You might even check into a disc swap using late model Crown Vic discs, these have a small bolt pattern for the housing and 5x4.5 bolt pattern discs. Lots of these donor Vics in the junkyards now.

 

[65ShelbyClone]

Sorry for all your problems in this, but when we spoke of this before, I told you it wouldn't work because I knew this from my own personal experience (learned it the hard way) that it wouldn't work if the parts are mixed.

Not to be a cheesey high pressure saleman or anything, but if you ever decide to ditch the drums, I do have rear disc brake adapters to enable you to put a nice set of discs on your housing with your existing 9-inch axles.

Yeah, well, it took me screwing myself to realize you actually do know what you're talking about with regard to 9" rear ends. Your Mark VII conversion brackets are incredibly tempting, BTW. I like the idea that it uses easily-obtainable Ford parts.

You might even check into a disc swap using late model Crown Vic discs, these have a small bolt pattern for the housing and 5x4.5 bolt pattern discs. Lots of these donor Vics in the junkyards now.

I haven't heard of this swap, where can I learn more? Are the disks vented?

In other news, I may take one of these weird 11" drums I have to the brake supply just to see how close they are to the Galaxie/T-Bird suff they have. I'm going there Monday anyway to pick up some hoses I ordered.

 

[ultrastang]

Yeah, well, it took me screwing myself to realize you actually do know what you're talking about with regard to 9" rear ends. Your Mark VII conversion brackets are incredibly tempting, BTW. I like the idea that it uses easily-obtainable Ford parts.



I haven't heard of this swap, where can I learn more? Are the disks vented?

In other news, I may take one of these weird 11" drums I have to the brake supply just to see how close they are to the Galaxie/T-Bird suff they have. I'm going there Monday anyway to pick up some hoses I ordered.

I certainly don't know everything there is to know about Ford rear ends, but I have spent countless hours over the last 15 years "studying" and working with these rear ends. I've included a lot of my findings on these rear ends on my website with information that's free for the general public to use for their own personal reference.

Best I can remember, the Galaxie drums --from the '65-up models have the correct 5-on-4½" lug pattern on the drums, but the brake asseblies are for a large bearing housing and the drums measure 11" x 2½". I had robbed a set of rear drums from a '65-'67 Galaxie years ago, to put on a '57 Ford station Wagon 9-inch large bearing rear end I had under my '66 fastback at the time.

The Mk VII setup is a very good swap (Dark Budda, from this site, has a set of my Mk VII brackets). The downside to the Mk VII swap is parts availability. The ONLY way a person can do that swap is if they locate an '84-'90 wrecking yard donor to get certain key components from. --no parts car, no Mk VII swap.

The SN-95 rear disc setup is completely different though (L-man, from this site, has a set of my brackets for the V6/GT version he's putting on his '67). The '94-'04 SN-95 Mustang rear disc parts are very abundant. With the SN-95 V6/GT or SN-95 Cobra rear disc swap, you can get used parts, or you can buy everything brand new through Ford or from the aftermarket.

www.ultrastang.com

 

[D.Hearne]

I haven't heard of this swap, where can I learn more? Are the disks vented?
.

I don't recall where I saw some info on the Crown Vic swap, but somewhere out there (or was it right here?) there are some who've done it. The discs aren't vented though. I don't think that's really needed unless you're planning some serious road racing.

 

[danny clemens]

Being that the '57-'59 small bearing 9-inch rear ends are the same width as the '65/'66 Mustang's 8-inch rears (52¼" bare housing width), you could use the '65/'66 Mustang's axles and brake drums on the '57-'59 Ford small bearing 9-inch housing.

However, you can't use the 8-inch rear end's drums with the big car's axles. --Been there. Done that, and it won't work. If you use the drums from a 52¼" wide 8-inch rear end, you have to use the 8-inch rear end's axles too.

If you use the small bearing axles from the '57-'59 big car 9-inch rear end, then you have to have the drums for the '57-'59 big car to work with the big car's axles.

www.ultrastang.com

I have a 59 rear in a Mustang right now with the 8" drums on it. All of the brake parts are in it but it never has never been used. It seems to be ok with no issues but I know that can change with brakes adjusted and expanded. Will the outside of the brake shoes (not the pad) rub the drum? I still have the 8" rear so I can use those axles.

 

[LUCAFU1]

i have some drums off a 58 small bearing 9"

they are originals and need to be cleaned up or turned. if your interested let me know.

 

[65ShelbyClone]

Thanks for the offer, but I borrowed all the brake stuff from one of my old man's '57s. Car still doesn't stop worth a darn with 4W drums, but it takes off faster with the 3.50s and T-Lok. I have 99% of the parts needed to swap the Granada discs on there, though That's going to happen before the holidays.

By the way, don't bother with off-brand(translation: Chinese) u-joints. I got two 1310/1330 conversion u-joints off Ebay and the width across the caps was anywhere from .010 to .025" too wide. I had to take them to work and shave them down on a lathe. Let me tell you, bearing-grade steel is hard as hell to cut. The chips peel off in a bright blue color. Anyway, stick with a name brand like Spicer.