Posted this in a different thread. Thought I would post it here where it belongs. Here's the scoop on how to mod your drum brake spindle into a disc brake spindle. Pictured is a disc brake spindle. Drum brake spindle will have different dimensions. I'm pretty sure I used the 0.786 dimension when I did mine years ago. Really pretty easy to do. Any machine shop should be able to do it. Or anyone with a milling machine. The pad at the top where the 5/8-18 threaded hole(in yellow) is where you need to remove material. DO NOT BREAK THROUGH when drilling and tapping the 5/8-18 bolt hole.
I've done this several times in the past, and actually thought about making it a side gig but quickly found out the Chinese spindles/kits ruined the opportunity. Its definitely easy enough to do.
Yes, as Joe mentioned, the big mounting nub at the top needs to be removed. At the time(15+ yrs ago) when I bought the Chinesium disc brake spindle kit, I was seeing reports of the Chinese spindles breaking. I then did some research and found that except for the bolt hole size being bigger and the boss there at the bolt hole needing to be removed, everything else was the same. I figured my original 66 spindles had survived 50+ yrs at that point, the American metal was going to be better than whatever Chinesium metal was in the kit I bought. edit... The hole is already there in the drum brake spindle to mount the backing plate. It just needs to be drilled and tapped bigger for the disc brake caliper bracket bolt.
Added an edit to previous post. My drum spindle is now a disc spindle. Lol Above pic is the Chinese disc brake spindle. Does anyone have a drum brake spindle that can post a comparison pic?
