Rear Hub and drum assembly too tight

1912Minerva

Junior Member
Hello All,

I thought I'd pull off my rear hub and drum assembly and check that it was ok and pack the bearing with grease. I did that but when I replaced it, I found the hub is now very tight. The wheel turned nicely before disassembly but now is almost too tight to turn by hand. I can't see what would have changed except for possibly placing the key back in another way....

Any suggestions as I am stumped????

Thanks in advance and regards,

Andrew.
 
Did it have shims in it? Did you back the brake adjusters off? Did the shoes somehow come off the tracks? Did the lever get pulled and the cam has gone over center. Could the key be riding up out of the groove and cocking the drum to one side. Dumb question but are you putting the drums back on the same side they came off?
 
My first thought is the key came out of place. I turn the axle so the key is on top, then carefully lift the wheel up and slide it in place. It still usually takes me two or three tries to not disturb the key. If the key is bent or otherwise damaged, I'd buy a new one. I put the tapered end of the key inward.
 
My thought the key got pushed in and is now touching the axle inner race. When he socked home the hub by torquing the nut, he took all the lateral free play out of that side axle and pinned it.

You can check how far the key is sunk down in the hub by removing the nut, washer and felt ring, and looking down the square hole. The outboard end of the key SHOULD be just below the surface.

Joe K
 
Thanks all for your suggestions. I think Redmodelt was closest with his suggestion of the shoes coming out of the tracks as this is what seems to have happened. I think as I pulled the drum off, it has dragged across the surface of the shoes and pulled them out of the tracks. When I put the drum and hub back on, the stepped part of the drum between the foot brake surface and the emergency brake surface was jamming against the side of the shoe.

Not sure how I'm going to fix this, hopefully if I put everything back together properly, the hub should slide back over the shoes as they're supposed too.

Thanks also Joe K for your info about key location. I was putting the key in wrongly too....

Cheers,
Andrew.
 
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