Well I took the wheels of the truck today and discovered that my rear brakes are ok. They are fairly recent vintage (compared to the truck). The front brakes are still pretty stuck and they are original style brakes. I am thinking that rather that spend a couple hundred dollars on new shoes and cylinders it may be a better idea to just buy a front disc conversion kit. Several people seem to make them but all I have found for the F3 is at the street rod manufacturing company (tsmmfg.com) had anyone used this kit or do you have any other suggestions?

 

I originally used it and it worked well they actually used my spindles to make the original setup. I have since put a jag front end and sold the F3 disk setup to another FTE'r

 

Do you know what discs they are using. I know you can buy them from the same place but I'm curious what my other options might be 10 years from now.

 

GM but not sure of which ones. I think the web site may tell you good luck

 

I bought the Street Rod Manufacturing kit for my 52 F3 and had recently finished the install (feb. 2013). The kit is nice and well manufactured, but the install instructions needed some help. I bought the calipers and hoses from a major internet supplier and got to work as soon as they showed up. The brake rotors have been machined on the inner surface to clear the original hub, which means you either buy replacements from SRM or buy over the counter and machine them yourself. The install requires that the caliper mounting "C" bracket be oriented to the front of the rotor and higher than lower (you'll know what I mean when you go to install). The other thing that I had to do was move the shocks to the backside of the axle as the caliper would not clear the shock and would not allow full turn radius....this proved to be easy to do and only requires 2 new holes to be drilled on each side to re-locate the shock mount. Be sure to install the calipers with the bleeder pointing up, I say this because the left caliper will be on the RF hub as the calipers were designed to be mounted on the backside of the axle, not the front as they are installed. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
w

 

Wow that looks like tight clearance between the caliper and the wheel. The idea of moving the shock worries me a bit. Was this the only system you found thqt would work with the 8 lug wheel? I have not found another but I am curious.

Thanks,
John

ps great photos they will help a lot

 

The wheels are a later model 8 lug wheel so they may not represent the true tolerances that the older wheel may provide. It is indeed a tight tolerance, but seems to be enough for now....This is the only kit that I found other than the DIY upgrade that others on this site have done. I was not able to find anyone else who did this same kit so I was on my own in terms of making it work. The owner of SRM was very helpful regarding the install tech support, but did not have a definitive answer on the shock mount issue. I am a long way from testing the system as I have just gotten the chassis back on four wheels.
Good luck!
w

 

The wheels are a later model F250 8 lug wheel so they may not represent the true tolerances that the older wheel may provide. It is indeed a tight tolerance, but seems to be enough for now....This is the only kit that I found other than the DIY upgrade that others on this site have done. I was not able to find anyone else who did this same kit so I was on my own in terms of making it work. The owner of SRM was very helpful regarding the install tech support, but did not have a definitive answer on the shock mount issue. I am a long way from testing the system as I have just gotten the chassis back on four wheels.
Good luck!
w