Good morning everyone...

I have a question about brake line routing on a 56 f100...my friend is in the process of restoring the trunk...and just hasn't had the time to do it..so he's given it to me to finish...but the problem I have...its been given to me in boxes...and if I was the one that did the tear down...I would be able to start the resembley myself...so now I have one giant puzzle to figure out...my question is...where dose the front brake lines run? Do they come through the frame? Is there a specific hole they go through? Because I have a completely blank frame...with no mounting points from front to rear for the brake lines...thank you in advance for your help...

Glenn

 

I am almost done installing my '55 F250 brake lines so I can share what I have done but the questions first are:

Are you going for "factory" restoration and want to keep it all exactly as it was? If so I don't think I can help much. However:

Are you keeping the front drum brakes or switching to front disk? The only real upgrade I have done to the truck was a replacing front drums with front discs. Things happen way too fast on the road today and I wanted the benefit of the reduced stopping distance and margin of safety.

If you are going to front disc then you are changing your master cylinder and adding a proportioning valve along with slightly different fitment of the brake hoses. The kit ibises mounts the master cylinder and booster under the cab.

So for the front drivers side it is just straight shot to the wheel with some appropriate bends to connect the fittings.

For the passenger side I ran the lines through the big bracket that supports the clutch and brake arms and then made a turn and followed the contour of the crossmember back both the passenger side and the straight shot to the wheel again with the appropriate bends to connect the fittings.

intently bent the lines to conform with the shape of the from rails.

I haven't quite figured out how to secure the yet but there are 2 holes on the crossmember for retaing clips and I still need to figure out which existing holes in the frame will use to hold the line.

Even if you are planning to keep it stock you should probably update to a dual reservoir master cylinder.

The rear line is straight shot back and I just hand bent the lines to conform to the differential and line up with junction block. It's not a perfectionist install but it will get the job done and look decent.

 

We are going with front disc brakes...but im trying to keep it as close to original as possible...the truck came to me completely disassembled...so im at a loss to where the lines go...if someone had pictures of the front brake lines...that would help greatly

 

I have my '55 lines still and will take a pick tomorrow. They obviously are off the truck so are only a close approximation.

I don't know if the '56 is the same. What I don't have any information on is how the soft lines were connected to the hard lines. What bracket was used and where....I would love to know that myself!

 

Exactly...

 

Ford illustration P-1478, in many of the catalogs is the place to start. It dates to 1953 and is generalized for all non-Big Job Ford trucks of the second generation and seems to favor the F-100 side of things. Despite its initial apparent lack of detail, it does substantially help navigate the group numbers in the corresponding parts listings to narrow down exactly what clips, brackets, and whatnot was used. Of course, some of that all goes out the window when you start using non-factory brake components.

Excerpt of the illustration:



For both the F-100 and F-250, the hard line to the rear terminated at the 59T-2073-B bracket which uses a 20389-S8 3/8"-24x1" bolt and 34370-S8 3/8-24 locknut to mount the side member. The hose is held into the bracket with the 78-2078-A clip. The hose freely runs to the distribution block mounted on the axle... On the F-100, the distribution block is mounted via the axle vent, and the F-250, via a bolt. The distribution block and hoses differ between the F-100 and the F-250 you guys have. There is also the hard line details (OD and lengths) that can be found in the brake line chart in some the catalogs.

 

Thank you for all the info...but dose anyone have a picture of the front brake lines and where they connect to the wheels...and if there is any brackets that connect to the frame...because as I have said before...I received the truck in boxes...and pretty much a blank frame...

 

Here ya go!

 

Thank you...that's what I was looking for...and yes...we are changing the front to disc brakes...this will definitely help in how the routing of the front lines go...now all I have to do is figure out how I'm gana go from the frame to the calipers...

Thank you

 

I've attached a few photos of how I routed my brake lines. Hope it helps a bit.

Master cylinder

Front driver side line

Front line crossover on frame

Front passenger side line

Flex connection frame to rear axle

Distribution block on rear axle

Passenger side rear line

 

What happened to the axle vent?

 

Looks like he has a temporary cap on it..

 

I'm glad you pointed that out for the sake of clarity. John is correct in that the gray cap in the photo is temporary until I get the bed rails installed and then the axle vent will go in. I didn't want anything to crawl in and "homestead" in the meantime.

 

Makes sense. Just looked weird to me and there are some very unfamiliar with the setup that try to force bolts or whatnot there.