Drumming up my frustration....

H

hangarb7

Senior Member
Gents, I have owned my car for 15 years. I have had the rear drums off at least three times in the past. Never needed a puller..... loosen nut, drive down the street and back and pop, the drum comes off.

Except this time. The left was easy. The right is completely stuck. I backed off on the brakes (is there an adjustment for the emergency brake?) I have unhooked both the brake and emergency brake rods. I have used a standard under the lugs (old school) puller and now using the fat steel part that goes around the neck groove.

I have soaked with penetrant, hammered on the axle and on the drum neck, tapped around the drum...... Haven't used the heat wrench yet but it should not be this difficult. It is not budging in the least. What am I missing or have a hint?

I saw on Paul Shinn's youtube that he uses a new key each time. I have never done that. But it doesn't appear that the keyways have shifted. I am stumped.
 
I would pull the rods on the e brake and then strike the drum around the circumference, as sometimes the shoes get caught on a lip that forms on the outside edge of the drum. if it isn't moving at all and won't budge, try a bit of heat around the taper then quickly hit it with penetrant. it will soak in and should break free.
 
have you still been working out at least three times a week?


dont worry, it happens to all of us.....
 
hangarb7 said:
Never needed a puller..... loosen nut, drive down the street and back and pop, the drum comes off..
Click to expand...

My brother did that one time on a '39 Ford, drove the car for a month before the hub came loose. It wasn't rusty, just STUCK tight.

Suggest that you put the other side back together tight. The side you're having trouble with, leave the nut just slightly loose and drive it around until it comes loose.
 
UPDATE !! I have always been hesitant to ask for help from other club members but my wife insisted that I call a couple older guys who visit to help club members. I HAD tried the Snyders style puller since my first posting but no dice.... Here is the result, Frank used a type that fits on the lug studs (I had tried a similar type previously made for Model A's but on that one, you had to crank with a wrench)but his has a cross lever where you can actually use a big hammer to thread the center tighter and tighter by hitting. It took about ten minutes and he said that in all his years, he has never seen one that tight..... why was it? I put the key in backwards about four years ago with the square end in, and it had jammed the drum on tighter. I did not know there was a difference between the ends.... the spoon shaped end goes inwards. Tough lesson but they got it off.
 
This has been covered before. Someone named this "the two hammer trick".I use two small sledges, or large ball peens or framing hammers. Loosen the axle nut, but leave it securely on the axle so the drum can't fly off (really). Put your chosen puller on the drum to put tension on it. Practice hitting the two hammers together,-like clapping hands, not hard enough to damage or chip them. Strike the part of the hub where the taper is inside with the hammers exactly in unison, simultaneously. Be careful of the moving drum-hub, it could fly across the room.
The strike expands the circumference of the taper for an instant, and the tapered axle is free for that instant, and POP. This is an old trick, and works on other tightly seized tapered things like suspension joints, propellers (boat type not airplane), flanges, machine tool joints (tight tapered chucks and cutters), etc. Rarely you might need to repeat at 90 deg. rotation. No one has ever reported damage that I know of-the strikes need to be absolutely simultaneous and opposite,to cancel the forces and movement. See the FB archives on the subject, and good luck.
RDVAARK
 
If your handy fabricate a puller
 

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Thanks... I just had a stuck drum...used most of the advice posted...I had a Studebaker hub puller for tapered axles...that and the two hammer trick (never thought of that) some PB Blaster...and the nerve to beat that puller...it's off!
 
You use a good hub type puller, crank in about 150 ft. lb. of torque on the nut and THEN,
warm the hub to about 400 degrees F. Usually it will pop loose before 400. DO NOT get the hub anywhere near red or turn color.

You haven't lived till you have worked on a vintage race car with an early Ford rear end.
When you get the process down pat, you can get a hub off in about a minute.

If you have your hubs lapped to the axles, this is the ONLY way you will get them off.
 
If anyone cares...I had to remove the drum to look at a problem...see my next post...the car stopped like it hit a wall..?? Any help is appreciated.
 
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