Steering: Spindle question

[starliner62]

I came across a front suspension off of a 63 GT Hawk. I plan on rebuilding this unit for my Wagonaire. According to the parts manual, the control arms, kingpins and supports will interchange. There is two part numbers for the steering knuckles/spindles, one for disc brakes and one for drum. Anyone know what the difference is in the knuckles?

[Dwight FitzSimons]

AFAIK, the only difference is on the back (inboard side) where the caliper (for disc brakes) bolts on. The disc brake spindle has this area machined down so the caliper can be bolted on.
-Dwight

[52 Ragtop]

Dwight is correct, the disc brake spindles have the backside machined flat, the non disc brake one are just counter bored, Studebaker did not have a bunch of $$$ laying around to Redesign" anything, so the "adapted" what they already had.

Jim

[gordr]

And if one were going to try to put factory disc brakes on older spindles, I expect one could just use a fly cutter to enlarge the counterbores to accept the bosses on the caliper brackets? Or is there more to it than that?

[swvalcon]

There would not be much point in using a factory disc brake system when there are so much better ones out there now.

[gordr]

Lower unsprung weight, for one.

[Studebakercenteroforegon]

And if one were going to try to put factory disc brakes on older spindles, I expect one could just use a fly cutter to enlarge the counterbores to accept the bosses on the caliper brackets? Or is there more to it than that?

The machined surface is to ensure a single level mounting plane for the caliper mounting bracket. Having three separate counterbored feature doesn’t necessarily create this perfect mounting surface.

[gordr]

Thank you. I have one or two sets of the disc brake spindles, I think, so it was mainly a hypothetical question. I can envison a way of counterboring the holes with a piloted counterbore that would stop when it hit a flate plate bolted to the machined face of the spindle. You have the shim packs to make the final adjustment in any case.

[Jeffry Cassel]

Right. The Dunlop brakes are way obsolete. Saw a car show recently Mike and Edd were repairing a Volvo with drum brakes. Instead of a disc brake conversion they put high performance linings on with about double the coefficient of friction o regular linings so the got disc brake performance at a fraction the cost and did not mutilate the car. Anyone with experience with high perf brake linings??

[TWChamp]

Right. The Dunlop brakes are way obsolete. Saw a car show recently Mike and Edd were repairing a Volvo with drum brakes. Instead of a disc brake conversion they put high performance linings on with about double the coefficient of friction o regular linings so the got disc brake performance at a fraction the cost and did not mutilate the car. Anyone with experience with high perf brake linings??

I wonder what the linings are that have so much more friction? I'd imagine they wear out quicker, but that shouldn't be a big deal with the few miles most of us put on Studebakers these days. I know the Model A guys prefer the woven linings over the molded linings because they have more friction for braking.

[PackardV8]

Opinions and results differ:

Right. The Dunlop brakes are way obsolete.

If one has a Stude originally equipped with discs and if the rotors are still within specs, they work perfectly well at the speeds way obsolete Studes should be driving.

Lower unsprung weight, for one.

For true, Gord.

Saw a car show recently Mike and Edd were repairing a Volvo with drum brakes. Instead of a disc brake conversion they put high performance linings on with about double the coefficient of friction o regular linings so the got disc brake performance at a fraction the cost and did not mutilate the car.

Don't believe everything you see on reality TV. If drums could give disc brake performance at a fraction the cost, the OEMs would still be giving us drum brakes today. US automakers held on to drum brakes as long as possible because the tooling fully depreciated and thus producing dirt cheap parts, but when Studebaker and Volvo, among others, proved the superiority of discs, they finally had to go with the better technology.

jack vines