Turning rear drums/hubs

hotrodA

Well-known member
I took several rear hub/drum combinations up to my favorite parts store/machine shop in an effort to find two round ones.

The guy only had one small coned sleeve in his adapters for the small end of the hub, and it barely went into the hub, so I don't think he could get a good center.

Any body run into this problem? What was the fix?
 
Bill,
The only time I turned rear drums was when I worked at a dealer that had a brake lathe and took my 37 drums to work on day. I had the small end refaced on a surface grinder to ensure that the cone would center it properly. The brake lathe I used had a rather small shaft and a small cone adapter that barely fit into the opening. After machining it I installed on the car with no backing plate and used a dial indicator and it was .0045" likely that small of a amount could have been the fault of the axle itself
 
My older machine has an adapter that fits into the hub in place of the rear wheel bearing and a cap over the outside hub that pushes up against were the rim would bolt on.
 
Find an old shop with the right tools and someone that remembers how to use them. There was a post a while back where someone dropped off a drum/hub assembly to be turned. When they went to pick it up they found the shop had beaten the hub bolts out with a hammer ruining both the hub and the drum. Final insult was that they expected to be paid for what they had done. Try asking around at the local Model A and Early V8 Ford Clubs for someone to do the work.

Charlie Stephens
 
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