1956 Pickup

Hello Moparts, It's good to be back! 1st project is my Dads 56 pickup. It has drum brakes with a 440 motor installed! Not going to work here in Diego-Town. Has anyone done a disk brake conversion? I see there are a few kits on the market, anyone use any of them? Any and all suggestions will be apricated.

It's good to be back!
Thx Diego

Hope you are doing well Ted! I’ve even raced at Barona in your absence a couple times.

Jay

Ted,
When I did my 54, way back years ago I used a disc brake conversion from www.rustyhope.com. It worked pretty well, comes with the caliper brackets, the seat slip on ring, and a list of parts that make it work so you can source your own parts.

There are probably a lot of more modern kits out there, probably some that use current off the shelf parts.

The last several trucks I've just clipped with a Dakota frame, but that is a lot of extra work if all you need it a disc brake set up. Gene

J Bod, how you doing brother! Hope you are doing well. I am doing good, finally retired from the VA, glad to be back on the Moparts! Picked up the Race Trailer yesterday :-) Hoping to see the track sometime this year!

Diego

Thanks PB, do you remember how complete and precise his instructions were? I can follow but I can't lead! LOL.

thx Ted

The Rusty Hope directions were pretty clear to me...
Basically, you remove all the original brake stuff off your axle. If I remember right (its been a very long time) there are two spindles Dodge used on the truck beam axle, one was a 3 bolt, and the other was a 4 bolt. He can help you get the right kit. You bolt the caliper brackets he provides to your spindles (you may have to enlarge and tap out a couple of the original holes in the spindle (on the cars you did, don't remember about the trucks). Then you use the bolts he provides and bolt the caliper brackets to your spindles. You slip the bearing spacer and seat lip (its a machined part) over the spindle where the drum/rotor runs, and push it back to seat against the back of the spindle (a light taping may be required). Then you pretty much buy and install the rotors with new bearings and seals, calipers, brake pads, and hoses he provides part numbers for.

The most difficult part (which you may not have to do) is drill out a couple existing bolt holes to the next bigger size and tap the threads in the holes. Past that, its pretty much a disc brake job. Gene

Thanks Gene, sounds like the way to go!

Scarebird may make a kit for that era trucks. They have a lot of other Mopar disc conversion kits, so if the other one doesn't work out.....google em and see. Best of luck with the project.

When I did the conversion on my '71, I bought the conversion brackets from Scarebird. Got the instruction sheet beforehand so I knew what to order, sourced everything from RockAuto and used slow/cheap shipping, I think I had less than $125 into all Raybestos parts...

Thanks everyone! Looking forward to getting the truck on the road to make my Ol man Proud! I will need lots of help from the Mopar crowd.

Diego

After you get him some disc brakes, maybe look into adding power steering. I had a 56 Dodge pickup with a 440/727 back in the early 80's. I had L60-15's all the way around...and MAN, was it hard to steer at low speed! The steering box is about as big as your fist, so it ain't no wonder it was like that.

Well this is an interesting process. After looking at his posted picture again, the front end of the truck sits a lot lower then it would have stock. Given that the original flat head 6 weighed a bunch (pretty close to the weight of the 440), I doubt the lower front end position is caused by the 440, unless the springs are shot, or several leafs have been removed from each spring.
I guess we (that includes me) all presumed that since the truck has drum brakes it must still have the original beam axle as well. That may not be the case, something has been done to lower the front end of the truck. That could dramatically change what is needed to upgrade to the disc brakes.
It could also make a huge difference concerning adding power steering, which would be difficult with the beam axle.
I guess we need to have Ted look under the front end and see if there is still parallel leaf springs and a beam axle under the lowered front end. It would also be good to know how the front end was lowered if the leaf springs and beam axle are still present. Some of the methods for lowering the beam axle that were used in the past are considered pretty unsafe these days. Gene

Good eye Gene! You may be right. If I remember right, you can't move the stock beam axle to the top side of the springs on those trucks.

A couple of options for power steering, one a little pricey the other not so much if you can find the parts. This is assuming it still has a straight axle under it.

Summit has an electric column kit that works like a lot of new cars do. The cheaper one if you can still find one would be the Ford power assist that uses a ram similar to what Sweptline trucks use except the control valve IIRC is incorporated into the cylinder itself instead of the drag link. Makes it adaptable to anything. Ford used it from the 60's right up to whenever they quit building Grenadas and Lincoln Versailles.

Kevin

Thx for the info guys. The suspension is stock. A question on the.drum brakes, is there a way to adjust? I see no adjustment wheel?

Cam bolts used for adjustment IIRC.

Ted look on the back side of the drums, two small bolts (3/8 or 7/16 head size) rotate the cams hidden under the brake shoes, a tiny bit of movement makes them move a bunch compared to the star adjuster wheels used later
Those are not self actuating type brakes, the wheel cylinders do all the work. Hence the same size shoes front and back with the bottoms anchor solidly to the backing plate

Now THAT'S Cool 👍!

Actually, the bottom anchors are also cam offset and will move the bottom of the shoes in or out as well. These brakes are a pita to get properly set, they work great once set, but if they are incorrect, the brakes pretty well suck.

I have a 54 Dodge truck service manual here.
The bolts on the bottom are called the anchor bolts, both are suppose to have either an arrow or a punch mark that identifies the inside position of the anchor bolt.
The adjusting cams under the shoes are referred to as the cam.
the text also refers to the "toe of the shoe" and the "heal of the shoe". The bottom of the brake lining on each shoe on both sides are referred to as the "heal" and the top of the lining on both shoes are referred to as the "toe". Each shoe has a toe at the top, and a heal at the bottom.
From the 54 Service manual:
Major brake adjustment
Be sure the master cylinder is full (paraphrase)

Position the anchor bolts and remove the tire assembly. Remove the inspection cover. Loosen lock nuts and turn brake shoe anchor bolts to fully released position, with the flats of the anchor bolts horizontal and the punch marks on the threaded ends of any pair of anchor bolts together and in line.

(1) Adjust the anchor bolt and cam on one of the shoes to give equal clearance at the toe and the heal. Make sure that sufficent center contact is maintained to produce a slight drag.

(2) After adjusting the clearance on one shoe, repeat the procedure on the other shoe.

(3) After the toe and heal clearance on both shoes have been equalized, install the tire and wheel assembly. Then, using the top adjusting cam, bring the shoe out until a moderate drag is obtained.

(4) Perform this procedure at all four wheels.

The book also goes into detail to be sure the brake shoes are aligned (square with the drum).

It also discusses brake pedal travel. There are 2 long paragraphs about free travel, and travel of the piston required to cover the relief port. Then it covers the travel of the brake shoes to contact the drums, I'll post that last paragraph:

An additional pedal travel of approximately 1 inch is required to move the shoes outward against the drums. The total pedal travel required to set the shoes should be approximately 1 3/4 inches to 2 inches with properly adjusted brakes. A minor brake adjustment (#3 & #4 above) will usually correct excessive pedal travel.

Good luck adjusting your drum brakes. Gene

That procedure should be incentive enough to put disc brakes on it.

Kevin

ECI is another brake kit vendor. They used to go to Carlisle but I haven't seen them there in years. Ralph is the guy's name IIRC. I spoke to him there one year and and was impressed with his engineering of the kits and the reasons he chose the components he uses.

He lists a kit for a 52 Dodge pickup, whether the spindles are the same as yours or not, I don't know but he could tell you if they would work or not. He used to offer a kit IIRC for A100 and I think D100 Sweptlines too but I don't see them in the catalog.

He sells a pretty spiffy looking tube bender too.

http://www.ecihotrodbrakes.com/index.html

Kevin

Also given the fact these are not self adjusting as the shoe wares off, and you get to adjust the brakes with every oil change should add a bit more incentive to step up to disc brakes, but some people like to keep things all original. Gene

That looks good though.

The 56 Dodge pickup I used to own had later model drum brakes of some sort on it. They were hugemongous finned drums with self adjusters, and were bolted to the factory spindles. It had a later 8 3/4 in it with the same kind of drum brakes on the back. Maybe C body drum brakes?

Thanks guys, a lot of food for thought! I will start to do my research and see which will be the best fit for my dads truck.

Diego