scarebird adapters

[hiball3985]

Not sure what wheels you looked at Summit, but http://www.wheelvintiques.com/ are one of the suppliers. You may be able to call and talk to someone about dimensions. Many wheel suppliers can make custom wheel to your dimensions also. I had custom steel wheels made for both of my trucks and they didn't cost any more then ones off the shelf..

[ROKuberski]

Jim,

I was on the Summit Racing website and the wheels I was looking at were actually from Vintiques.

Thanks,

Rich

[lalessi1]

Rich, I am seriously thinking about buying a 14'' x 6" wheel from Summit for my spare. If I do I'll let you know. I am confident enough that it will fit to take a chance on the pain of returning it. I can also make a template/drawing of what I have if it helps. Where did you find the rotor specs? It was a couple of years ago when I was looking for rotor info but I couldn't find much info on that. I got help from the gentleman that owns Drop'em & Stop'em, he might can help. We talked about vacuum boosters as well. He has been doing older Fords for a while.

[ROKuberski]

Lynn,

I've been getting the information from the Rockauto website.  Here is a link.  http://www.rockauto.com/

It's easy to navigate.  Go to Ford/1974/Gran Torino/Brakes/Rotor and then click on a rotor until you find one that list the size.

I then backed up and found the wheel bearings for that rotor.  It gives the O.D. and I.D. (or bore) sizes.  The stock '57 spindle takes 1.25" inner and .75" outer bearings.  That's how I was able to figure out that the Mustang rotor was a direct fit.  However, I haven't yet taken measurements to determine backset.

On a previous post, I inserted a picture of a diagram from wildwood where they give the wheel clearances on the rotor/caliper that they are selling for the Fairlane.  Using that information I made the cardboard cutout that I tested on my spare tire.  There are two radii listed, 6.01" and 6.67"  I marked both, but only cut out the larger one.  I was thinking that I should have cut out both and then taken a few pieces of 2"x4" and glued it between the pieces of cardboard.  that would give a better idea if the caliper would fit. 

Since I will have to get new wheels, I will get something that will fit this configuration.  I'm not changing the spindle.  The Torino uses different size wheel bearings.

However, I would like the dimensional information that you get.

I've been looking at hydroboost units.  There seems to be a wide range of them and I can't really tell what the differences are from the websites that I found.  Just different pricing.  There is a cheap on used on some Chevy Suburban's, only about $250.  But I have no idea if that would work.  I've seen one advertised for use in the 57 Fairlane and they wanted about $450 for it.  I don't have power steering, so mounting a pump would be an additional thing to do.  I don't have a bracket for the pump, but I've looked at them and I think I can fabricate one that will look a lot like the original.

Thanks,

Rich

[lalessi1]

Thanks for the info. I am kind of a freak when it comes to research about what I want to accomplish. If I had done brakes on my car from a stock configuration I would have never changed spindles either given available options. I posted earlier about a two bolt hydroboost Bosch unit in the "Power Brake Boosters" section. I think this a bolt on (at this point). I at some point I plan on using a Saginaw pump and probably a recirculating ball power steering box (as opposed to rack and pinion). I am following a thread just posted about a Borgeson box being installed by canadian_ranchero in a manual transmission car.

[lalessi1]

I got a 14" wheel in today (finally) and it fits on the 10.8" Torino rotors on my car. It is a 14 x 6 1/2 with 4" BS and a 2 3/4" center hole. It is a Ford wheel off of a 1979 LTD. 

[gasman826]

LTD II

[hiball3985]

Now I'm confused, what was a LTD II ? I has assumed the LTD would have 15" wheels?

[gasman826]

'70s Lincolns and full size Ford(LTD and wagons), some mid '70s Thunderbirds and full size Mercury wheels were 5X5X15.  '77-79 LTD II and Thunderbirds were on a similar frame and size(many interchange parts).  Many '77-'79 LTD IIs had 14" wheels with 15" options but with the common 5x4.5 bolt pattern. 

[lalessi1]

I checked before I bought the wheel and 79 LTDs had 14" wheels. Apparently the "full size" 4th generation LTDs were built on the smaller "panther" platform. According to "automobile-catalog.com" the standard tire size for a Ford LTD Landau 4-door Sedan 5.8L V-8 (1979) was FR78-14, the front discs were 10.7" dia. I verified that with Tire Rack. I can't really tell you what the wheel came off of other than what I was told. This wheel at 6.5" wide is wider than I would have liked, but there is another Ford model that has 14" wheels that will work on smaller disc brakes.

[ROKuberski]

Lynn,

Great job on finding another wheel that might fit into the mix of parts to do disk brakes and keep 14" wheels.

I am thinking that for me, the project needs the following.

New rotors to fit existing spindle.  Scarebird is using the '68-'69 Mustang rotor.  That equals no change in ride height and no changes to suspension.  I have already completely rebuilt the front suspension.  I've had the springs out, replaced all bushings, bearings, ball joints and tie rod ends.  If anyone wants to know how easy it was to R & R the front springs, I can explain how I did it.  The service manual tells how to remove the springs and then says to reverse the process to reinstall them.  It won't work for replacement, but I did come up with an easy method.

Calipers & caliper mounting kit.  This must work with the new rotors/wheels.  I've been looking at the pictures of the caliper mounting kits and they don't seem all that complicated.  I have pretty good metal working skills and may opt to make my own mounting hardware.  Then perhaps I could use the 1979 LTD caliper with a Mustang rotor machined down to 10.8". 

New wheels to clear the new rotor/caliper.  These wheels need to be reasonably priced and findable.

Right now, it is very close to working with stock wheels.  I measured 11.75" between the rivets.  I need to see how much room the 1979 LTD calipers take. If anyone has a caliper and can measure the distance from the edge of the caliper to the outer edge of the caliper, then we can see if this has any chance of fitting into the stock wheel.

The Rockauto site says the rotor for the LTD is 10.8".  The Mustang rotor is 11.3", so it's only 1/4" off of the radius to match them up.  If it were possible to take a little more without causing a problem with the sweep of the pad on the rotor, then perhaps the stock wheels could be used.

Rich

 

[LAUDY57]

OK, what is your easy way to R&R the springs? Always like to hear ideas!!

[ROKuberski]

In the service manual, the describe using a jack to let the spring down.  I did that by putting the car up on jack stands and then with a floor jack, picking up enough weight to compress the springs, then removing the ball joints and then letting the lower control arm down in to a vertical position.  The lower control arm will be pointing straight down at this point.  there is a small bump in the lower spring seat that will hold the spring in position.  Just push the arm a little past vertical and the spring will just fall out.  The manual says to reverse this operation to reinstall the spring.

Well, you can put the spring back into the upper housing and rehang it on the lower control arm, but you can't budge the control arm at this point so you can't jack the control back into position.  On the side of the frame you will see where a bent pipe cross member is welded in.  I stuck a piece of pipe about 5' long into this hole in the frame.  At the end of this pipe I hooked one end of a cable come-a-long with the other end attached to the bottom to the control arm.  I them used the come-a-long to pull the lower control arm up to about a 45 degree position.  At that point I put the jack back under the control arm and pushed it into position.  I had to have both the upper and lower ball joints loose in order to finish the reinstallation.  At first I had the upper ball joint tight and intended to hook up the lower ball joint when I jacked the lower control arm into position.  This did not work.  I ended up lifting the car off of the jack stand before the control arm was in position.  It was close, but not close enough to put a nut on the ball joint.  I then backed off the nut on the upper ball joint and managed to get the nut on the lower ball joint. 

Later, I thought that I might have been able to use a chain between the frame and the bottom of the jack to prevent lifting the car off of the jack stands, but that might be a little dangerous.

By the way, you need a special press to remove and install the new bushings.  I managed to borrow a set from a friend. 

Yes, I know the control arms should be black, but I like red.

Prior to doing this, I was hearing a metallic knock every time I hit a bump.  Two of the control arm bushings had the rubber completely gone.  If anyone is interested, I have a complete set of new control arm bushings surplus to my needs.

Rich

[LAUDY57]

Good to know, thanks.

[hiball3985]

Rich are you using the stock springs? I've done several front end rebuilds over the years, and one of the first things I did to my ranchero when I got it and have always just used the jack to put them back together without a problem. Did you also replace the rubber spring seats?