Brake Drums

I have a 69, and had the drums off for the first time back in the summer. They were really on there as well. I wound up putting a scissors jack on the frame and put just a small amount of presure on the edge of the drum and just slightly put heat to the mounting surface of the drum and hit it hard with a rubber hammer. took a few tries but got it, and yeah watch you shins..
or you could just get a puller.

 

The second tool i bought when i did my brakes was a puller, good investment. Didn't know to put the nut back on to keep hub contained. SOB flew about 3 feet when it let go. I am a wiser man now.....

 

Yes, the hub and drum are two separate pieces. Now that I have everything apart and on the bench and cleaned up I can see that. The lug studs have "teeth" on them that appear to be pressed into the drum is that the swedge? I still can't get them apart. If the teeth are the swedge, how do you grind them out without destroying the hub or the lug stud? I could bash the center with a sledge, but that just does not seem right. These drums are stuuuuucccckkkk!!!! Apparently they have been on there since 1967 and have grown accustomed to each other and do not want to be separated. Maybe I will just leave them alone for now they seem happy together.

 

Press them out or yes drive them out if you have no other way, make sure to protect the threads.

 

I have a press, but it will not accomodate all 5 studs at once. My plan now is to put the lug nuts on above the top of the lug studs and hit them one at a time in a circle. We will see.

Mcruff, What does swedge mean?

 

why do you need to get them apart? youll have to press out each stud individually then you can heat the drum to expand it and it should come apart. doesnt make much sense though if your just going to put it back together again

 

I might need to get in there again. This time was not fun at all. I want that drum free!! Freeeeeeedooooom!!!!!!!!!!!! Free the drum.

 

The factory took a tool, that slid over the stud and peened or forced the material around the stud to make it tight.

 

If he does it now, he'll never have to do it again. The fact this was still put together this way says to me his brakes were never messed with cause mechanics usually never redid what the factory did.

 

They did a damn good job! My hat is off to them!

But, the drum is still stuck.

 

I agree with the first sentence but disagree with the second. While a bit of a pain most techs aren't going to the trouble to mess with machining and hassling with separating them unless it's needed to change a drum unless they are getting paid to do it.

 

My experience has been that if the drum was replaced it was not swedged, so it slipped right over the studs like modern ones do. Personally, If I had encountered this problem, I would have jsut broke the damn drum and bought new ones to avoid this all together.
Did most mechanics in the day take the god awful time to remove the hub on the 2 piece axles to remove the drum? Heck with the trouble they are, it would be well worth a few minutes with a drill or grinder.

 

Because they might have to do it again?

 

Because Tech's (Mechanic's) typically get paid a flat rate to do a job and typically don't have ready access to the machine tools to do the extra work and mess with trying to get the right parts to convert. It's a great conversion getting rid of the swaged drums so they can be easily removed. I do it to all my Jeeps, but techs aren't getting paid to do that stuff. They want to complete the job and move on to the next job so they can make a wage.

 

Same exact thing I learned from my Dad who was a Mechanic for 30 plus years who worked on them. Learned the same thing from his boss who worked on vehicles that went back to the 40's when I was young. I remember going to work with Dad when a kid during the summer and them working on tons of old cars with the same type of set ups. Yes, they went through the "hassle" of removing the hubs because that's what they were getting paid to do. They did NOT get paid to mess with removing the drums from the hubs unless the drums needing replaced. As they told me, it was much easier to remove the whole assembly. Remember, the vehicles in question were not 50 plus years old at that time. Back then most customers wanted their vehicles to be the same as they were purchased from the factory. I worked summers for that same guy (my Dad's boss who owned the shop) through high school to earn extra money.

 

They tend to bend. They do not break. If anyone knows how to break the SOB without tearing up the hub let me know. Trust me if it could be broken it would be. I beat the crap out of this thing and I still have another one to go.

As for techs getting paid to do this stuff, I live in "ROSWELL, N.M." (We are hoping to hit the big 50,000 in the 2010 census and we are at least 200 miles from any city close to 200,000, not exactly a suburb) The tech generally owns the company he does it right and knows the customer will be back if there is a problem, he has been around for a long time, and ya don't play games when dinner is on the line. Matter of fact, I know who can fix it right; I am just playing around trying to do it myself for fun. Hugo will eventually get it and make fun of me for trying and making a mess out of it. Trust me, he and any other mechanic in this town would have made it easier on himself the next time around. My Jeep grew up in Roswell, it was a ranch jeep, it lived its life here, it has probably never been more than 100 miles from the city limits, and the ranch headquarters is close to about 50 miles from the city center.

This is all for fun, and we should not be arguing about what should have been done, because nothing has been done to this jeep since it came off the assembly line. Well, maybe an oil change or two?

 

An option to remove the swaging could be to cut down the stud with a hacksaw or cutoff wheel and use a hole saw that just fits outside the shoulder of the stud and cut into the drum on each stud until it can be removed. I'd also do anything you can to back off the shoes from the drum to relieve tension. If you still can't get them off and these are Bendix style brakes, carefully cut or grind the heads off the shoe retainers or "nails" as they are referred to. This will allow the shoes to pull away from the backing plate. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't, but is an option if you can't get them off any other way.