This work is licensed under a
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Commons License.
Copyright 1996-2004 Dan Wentz
A Disk Brake Horror Story |
quick liNksmaintenanceSpecifications modificationsF-Series historyCanadian Ford & Mercury Trucks Early F-Series in Film & Television Online ToolscommunityMy 1950 f1 |
A reader submitted some details of a bad experience with ECI's disk brake conversion on his 55 F100. This serves as a reminder to double check every claim the ad makes. The kit is said to be a bolt on and uses the original wheel bolt pattern. With a low price of $329 it seems like a good deal. The problems began as soon as the kit arrived. Problem 1: The caliper bracket interferes with the zerk fittings on the spindles. ECI suggests disassembling the king pins and redrilling them for zerk fittings, then capping the old holes. If you didn't want to do that you could remove the calipers and brackets and replace the zerks every time you greased the spindles. Neither of these solutions are convenient and neither indicate a simple "bolt on" installation. Problem 2: The directions indicate that you must remove the outer race from your new hubs and install another one so that you can use the bearings that come with the kit. That's a mild pain but the directions say to do it with a hammer and punch--except that the races don't have any kind of relief cut to punch them out. They had to be sent out to get it done. ECI claims they got a batch of hubs from their supplier without the relief cuts. And they still sold them? If they have to special order the hubs with races that have a cutout, why not special order hubs with no races? Or with the correct races? Problem 3: The kit does not come with hoses. I don't know that I've ever seen one that did, but you see kits advertised as being "complete" and "bolt on", yet it's hard to have a complete brake system without hoses going to your calipers. The summary: Apart from the headaches of having to reengineer the kit to make up for poor design, this guy spent a lot of money he didn't count on spending. It was about $50 to press in the new races, and brake hoses are going to run about $70. That's $120 extra that the guy didn't plan on spending--making the total cost of the project about $450. For $450 he could have had a top of the line conversion kit and less (or no) unexpected headaches. The final insult is that he did everything right. Before ordering the kit he talked to ECI and asked a lot of questions about the installation. None of this came out in his discussions with them. Be very careful when you buy conversion kits for your truck. Utilize
the internet--ask for people's opinions of the parts on message boards
or mailing lists. Know what you're getting (or getting into) before you
hand over your money. |
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Copyright 1996-2004 Dan Wentz |