OT 1952 Ford F-6 truck help needed

[moodyholler]

OK, I am constantly amazed at the wealth of info available on this forum So here goes. I have a 1952 Ford dump truck, and I want to put it back on the road. The brakes are truly poor on it and I want to upgrade to dics all the way around. Has anyone seen this done? I know the street rod guys are doing it, but how about on a larger truck? I don't want to put a newer wider front axle under it so looking for ideas. Front and back if possible. Thanks and hope I am not steeping on any rules. moodyholler

[Hawkeye2]

Off hand I can't think of any spindles that you could adapt to your axle which has kingpins, changing out the front axle and probably related suspension would be the way to go though you might have to cut the frame at the firewall and splice in the front of the doner vehicle frame. The rear has full floaters and while you might find a way to attach a disc to them you would be up against it trying to put calliper mounting brackets on your housing. Put a later rear axle with larger and better drum brakes under the truck.

[J Miller]

Ummm, how about a pic or two of the 52 Ford F6???

As for the breaks, I'd take the existing shoes if they're in good shape and have them re-lined with the highest quality linings you can get. I did that with the 27 Chevy I worked over and it worked great.

That's just my opinion of course.

Joe

[Buffboy]

I'm gonna give you "my opinion". Most of those old trucks used a vacuum brake booster(boosted hydraulic brakes) that doesn't work right anymore, that is darn near impossible to get parts for, darn tough to work on, is a real pain to retrofit(newer version you CAN find parts for) and really pricey no matter what your choice. It's hard to even find people that will work on them anymore, they are such a pain to get right and such a liability headache. The hydraulic part is pretty easy but that booster gets a hick-up and you suddenly don't have any brakes. That's why you don't see many of these old trucks still being used or restored. It's something of a dying art getting them to work right, so few bother, they just junk the truck.


If it were mine and I really wanted to get it back on the road, I'd convert to air brakes. You can get used airbrake axles, tank, brake pedal controller and engine air pump for less than cost of the parts/labor to restore/fix the booster system. Admittedly, a lot of work but then you'd have good brakes, parts are available, pretty easy to work on and not that bad for price. Wouldn't be discs but good brakes none the less. To be honest, even with all new parts, the old boosted brake systems, even on their best days, they ain't very good.

[Griff]

I agree with Buffboy. But... if you're thinking of converting to power steering, stick with hydraulic and use a hydraulic booster ala newer 1 ton trucks.

PICS, dern ya... you KNOW we want pics!

[gundownunder]

Yep, like everybody else I reckon this thread should be junked by the moderators for not having pics added

I actually drove an old Ford F700 truck before I drove a car.

Have you spoken to a Ford truck service center to see whether maybe they can upgrade your old one with new Ford truck axles and power brakes.

[stretch]

As always, the boys (and girls!) on Leverguns come through with
timely and well thought out advice no matter how arcane the subject.

This is really an amazing forum, as are the people on it.

-Stretch

[stretch]

As always, the boys (and girls!) on Leverguns come through with
timely and well thought out advice no matter how arcane the subject.

This is really an amazing forum, as are the people on it.

-Stretch

[Cimarron]

Buffboy knows of what he speaks! You don't say what you will be doing with this truck. Just a restoration for the truck shows or are you going to use it to haul with? I have an old 1923 MACK AB that I restored several years ago. It is strictly a show truck. It has mechanical brakes, meaning the only thing between your foot and the brakes is some rods and linkages. Oh yeah, it is on "solid" tires so you really get the feel for the road You may want to contact the American Truck Historical Socitey about your conversion. Good luck.

[moodyholler]

OK, newer axles are too wide. So I want to keep the stock appearance. I want run Alcoa bud wheels. I will use it mainly for maintenance of my driveway and I know I can hire someone to do it cheaper. The only pics I have are from its working days. No current pics for a while. Driveline will be modern fuelie motor with computer and a 5 speed NV4500. I thank everone for thier help. moodyholler

[Buffboy]

Axles too wide? I'm pretty sure the frame dimensions have been standard on large trucks since the early 40s. The F-6 is a neat old truck if I'm thinking about the right one but it was full sized so I'm surprised that modern axles won't work.

Scratch that, I'm thinking about the wrong truck. I googled & found a picture, you're right, that the truck is more like a modern 1 1/2 ton in size. It may not even have the boosted brakes. Still gonna be a challenge to get modern brakes on it with your power up option. You might try some racers forums, some of the Halibrand(sp?) quick change rear ends are based on truck rear ends in about that size. You might find a disk conversion from one of those that would bolt to your axles. You might also see if more modern 1.5 ton truck axles will work.

[gundownunder]

check this out for an interesting F-6

http://www.customclassictrucks.com/feat ... to_02.html

[Tycer]

Narrowing a Frod rear end is not expensive. Holler at Industrial Chassis http://www.industrialchassisinc.com
They built a weld-in front crossmember that took Dodge Dakota donor parts for my '49 Chevy and a bolt-in brake pedal/booster/master cylinder set-up. Absolutely flawless. Went from solid front kingpin axle to full half-ton IFS, rack/pinion steering with a big fat sway bar and disk/drum power brakes.

Perhaps they could make you one from a donor vehicle of appropriate size.

[M. M. Wright]

My daily (almost) driver is a '49 Chevy 3100 pu. It has an 86 pu front end with discs and power steering. Rear axle is from a 96 Caprice cop car so discs there too with posi-trac (or whatever chevy called it). I would find a burned or wrecked Dodge one ton and use the independent front end and rear axle from it and you would have the hydraboost power for the brakes. I've seen this done and it was great. That Cummins engine would be nice too. Cummins belongs to Ford now so I don't see a problem there.

M. M.

[awp101]

Just a thought...

[moodyholler]

Cool truck but be hard to haul much gravel in that box!!!!!!! MH

[MistWolf]

Disc brakes can be fitted to nearly any kind of axle with the proper conversion kit. Guys building big 4x4s running huge tires run heavy duty axles converted to disc brakes all the time. I don't know enough to tell you if disc brakes are a better choice or not than modern drum brakes on a heavy vehicle.

If you'd like to look into installing a hydro-boost system using modern components, check out this link for parts-
http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=106056