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drum brakes and trailing arms 63-65

L48

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 16, 2005
Messages
247
Location
Wadsworth OH
Are the trailing arms for the drum brakes different than the trailing arms for the disc brakes?

A friend of mine has a set that came on the replacement frame for his 63 and I wonder if I can use them on a disc brake car (like my C3?). Or maybe they are rare and I should try to find a C2 owner who needs them?

Thanks
 
63/4 trailing arms didn't have the bracket for the emergency brake cable that was used on the 65-67 disc brakes. The 63/4 cables were jacketed and ran directly to the backing plates. I don't know of any other differences.

Rich
 
Something else

The frames on disk brake cars have a slight indentation on the outside to obtain additional clearance so as not to have any interference problems for the calipers when the trailing arms move up and down.

Viewed from the top, the indent is about 3/8" deep and covers approx. 10" on each side of the frame.

However I have converted drum brake cars to disk brakes on quite a few occasions, and never had any interference problems with the calipers on any 63 or 64 frames.

Stepinwolf
 
The frames on disk brake cars have a slight indentation on the outside to obtain additional clearance so as not to have any interference problems for the calipers when the trailing arms move up and down.

Viewed from the top, the indent is about 3/8" deep and covers approx. 10" on each side of the frame.

However I have converted drum brake cars to disk brakes on quite a few occasions, and never had any interference problems with the calipers on any 63 or 64 frames.

Stepinwolf


So you're saying that I could have used my 63 arms and converted them keeping my emerg. brake rather than using 65 arms and losing the brake. Damn It:mad Wish I had asked back then.
 
It's been awhile since I looked, but I think that the 63-64 trailing arms had a different "pad" for the jounce bumper to hit than the disk brake car trailing arms.
Ol Blue
 
It's been awhile since I looked, but I think that the 63-64 trailing arms had a different "pad" for the jounce bumper to hit than the disk brake car trailing arms.
Ol Blue

That's correct - 63/64 had the jounce bumper mounted on a bracket outboard of the frame rail (photo below); it was relocated underneath the frame rail in '65 to provide caliper clearance. :)
 
Something to remember is that the bracket that John shows can be a killer for tires that are too wide. That happened more than once in the early years before restoration was prevalent and guys were sticking wide wheels and big tires on for traction.
Ol Blue
 

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