Hello all!
Want to ask the large knowledge base a brake hardware question.

What later year Ford F-100 trucks' self adjusting brake shoe hardware would work on earlier Ford pickup trucks, F-1 & F-100 models?

Would like to upgrade the manually adjusted brakes in our 1949 Ford F-1 pickup truck. It appears that the proper hardware would work on older models if the drum & shoe sizes are still the same?

Am I missing anything important?

Thanks! Jeffrey Happ.

 

I believe that Ford started the automatic brake adjusters starting with the 1966 model on trucks. I think cars got the automatic adjusters a few years earlier. You should be able to get all the hardware down at your local NAPA store. But you have to buy 2 kits; the spring kit and the hardware kit....or just head to a wrecking yard

I put a 9" out of a 60 F100 in my 49 F1. I just bought the later hardware and have been good to go

I'm not sure about adapting the auto adjusters to the original brake drums/backing plates. hopefully someone else will have info on that
Bobby

 

Thanks, Bobbytnm!
That information falls in with what I had heard, that the 1964-67 FORD F-100 brake hardware seems to be the magic number!

Beginning early next month, my brother & I will pull the wheels & drums to document & measure up what is there on our 1949 F-1. (...We replaced all the OEM brake fluid elements, flex connectors and front brake lines in 2018 and haven't had any problems since, other than regular adjustments).

Found a vendor on eBay that sells the replacement self-adjusting hardware kits complete with the ratcheting adjusters, cables, & clips. It looks like it has all the good stuff!
Here is the listing for the rear axle:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/192650277787
(the kit for the Front axle has a listing below the item details).
If anyone sees something out of place in those kits please let me know!

 

HI everybody!
After a few false starts, the self-adjusting brake upgrade to the 1950 F-1 is going to move forward!
Next week I will be on the East Coast and will be able to continue this idea.

UPDATE:
All 4 brake drums were pulled, cut & cleaned up nicely!

Here's one after cleaning up....
We were expecting to replace at least 2 of the drums... and probably will down the road... (this is the last time these drums will be able to be serviced like this).

* Replacement 1964-67 FORD F-100 self-adjusting brake hardware, springs & retainers for all 4 axles obtained, sent to the F-1, awaiting install.


* Bonded OEM 11" replacement brake shoes for the front axle...( the rear shoes are in surprisingly good shape and will be re-used for now).


* Reference photos of 1964-67 F-100 self-adjusted brake hardware assembled examples, (off the internet,) to aid in installing this upgrade.



Photos to come shortly!
UPDATE: 10/26/24
After pulling things apart and inspecting the replacement parts, brake shoes & backing plate... the first thing that jumped out at me was the slot for brake shoe adjustment is not in the correct spot on the left side backing plates... The right side's backing plates are correct and line up right next to the self adjuster's teeth properly.
The OEM brake shoe adjuster did not have a specific installation orientation other than to line up with the slot in the backing plate.. this would mean the OEM adjuster could go in with the adjustment teeth facing forward on the left side & backward on the right side to line up with the slot.
For the self-adjusting hardware, the adjuster's teeth face towards the rear on the backing plate as the adjusting cable & cable guide mount on the secondary (or rear) shoe the with larger amount of lining material.
So... the install will go in on the right side without making another slot in the backing plate...

The Left front backing plate before the second adjustment hole is drilled.


The Left rear backing plate after the second hole is drilled/flied... the adjuster lines up nicely when assembled.

The next item of concern is the grease trap around the front wheel bearing. The trap is an approximately 4" steel box that surrounds the front wheel bearing assembly to catch any grease slung out of the end seal. The adjustment clip at the bottom of the shoes hits the bottom of the trap..

The top of the adjustment clip is hitting the bottom of the grease trap....


After a few taps with a hammer to push bottom of the grease trap out of the way, now there is room for the mechanism to move and adjust the brake shoes!

The next (and hopefully last), item of concern is the anchor pin plate at the top of the brake shoes... the OEM anchor pin plate is thick and there is not enough room for the 2 larger diameter retracting springs & the adjustment cable to sit comfortably...




A bit of grinding on the center area thins it enough to get those 2 retracting springs in place comfortably.

That's it for the night. Will get the wheels back on, & everything adjusted up for a road test tomorrow!!

 

Update: 10/27/24
The upgrade to self adjusting brakes on our 1950 FORD F-1 pickup is done!

After putting the wheels back on, went through and adjusted all 4 wheels until the shoes just start to drag on the drums.

Pumped the bake pedal, set the emergency brake on & off several times to set the shoes in the drums before getting vehicle down on the ground for some road tests.

Several road tests to see how the brakes are behaving, a few panic stops thrown in as well. All good but the pedal is a bit lower than before... Pull in and put the front axle up to see what kind of drag is on the front shoes... not very much drag at all!

Adjust up the front shoes until there was even drag on both wheels when spun.

Another road test and it is good!!
The upgrade was a success!

To review:
The newer self-adjusting brake hardware will work on an older FORD pickup truck,
BUT there are some caveats...

#1. The backing plates on the left side of the vehicle will need to have an additional adjustment slot cut into those backing plates to access the brake shoe adjuster wheel, without cutting a slot on the side, there is no access to make adjustment of the brake shoes.
The right side backing plates line right up with brake shoe adjuster wheel allowing adjustment.

#2. The grease traps on the front wheels will need to be 'persuaded' to move up and out of the way of the adjustment clip & cable. That clip is attached to the cable that makes the adjustment when backing up an applying the brakes. It needs to have room for movement... Mr. Hammer & Mr. Punch supplied the "persuasion" to the corner of the grease trap to it get out of the way.

#3. The OEM anchor pin plate at the top of the brake shoes to help center them when the retraction springs do their thing. The primary shoe self adjusting retraction springs are larger diameter steel, hence the anchor pin at the top gets too tight to set both retraction springs with out grinding down the center section of the OEM anchor pin to make some more room... (the hardware kit does not contain a new anchor pin plate so the OEM pin plate has to be made thinner).

Best of luck out there with your projects!!
JTH.

 

A great write up JTH! I just went through sort of this kind of thing a year ago or so. I have a Dana60 rear the PO installed from a donor truck probably a mid to late 60's F-100, but the numbers are all missng on it so I can't run them to be sure what it came off. Anyway this Dana rear, has self adjusters on it. My left side adjuster didn't work very well. It boiled down to the shoe pads on the backing plates were worn and gouged up. The shoes would actually "ratchet" and get stuck in the wrong position. I finally pulled them all off and took them to a welding shop and had them welded up and ground back down even again. (Same for my fronts too. All the backing plates shoe pads were badly worn. ) They work good now. Something I am now doing about every year is pulling the shoes out a little and with a small blade screwdriver putting just a very thin coat of high temp wheel bearing grease on them to help keep the shoes sliding across more easily instead of gouging them again.

 

Wanted to do a bit of follow up on the materials used in this upgrade... This idea would not have worked if there were no easily available kits like these... it made it easy!
When the kits for the brake hardware arrived, I was able to look at them to determine if they contained the correct parts, etc...
They did have all the proper parts for all 4 axles, even had extra parts!

Little did I realize that kits also supplied a few of the little rubber covers for the brake adjustment slot(s)...
Each bag contained at least 1 plug if not 2 of them.

Reference picture at the ready, I'm doing my due diligence to make sure it was right... and those pesky rubber covers ...
Were really needed!


Turns out those extra adjustment holes that needed to be drilled in the left side brake backing plates, would be needing 2 covers!!
^ Above is the Front Left plate...^

v Below is the Rear Left backing plate with it's two holes covered by those rubber plugs... v

Well, well who knew!
Funny how that works!
Each bag also contained a small squeeze tube of silicone lubricate for the adjuster threads, and backing plate shoe landings... Had enough for all 4 axles.
These kits was a real good bargain!
Good luck with your projects out there!
Regards, JTH.

 

Nice job and excellent write ups!

Where did you find the parts kits?

 

Hello!
This project, like many others is sparked by something I have come across on eBay!
In the above question thread, the June 12th response to that first reply, I posted an eBay link for a vendor...
(...just tested the posted link above and it still works to the vendor used in this project...)
Here are both.
Front kit:https://www.ebay.com/itm/202429734546
Rear kit: https://www.ebay.com/itm/192650277787
And the eBay ad has a good picture of the parts spread, too!

Good luck on your project!

 

Here's the link.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/192650277787