ok, I have a 46 1/2 ton, and the hubs are 5 lug. Does that mean that they are not original? Having trouble sorting out exactly what I have with this truck. The previous owner was my wife's grandfather and he isn't with us anymore. From what I know he restored it in the 70's sometime. Managed to sort out replacing the cylinders on the back and replaced the brakes with self adjusting ones. Went pretty smooth except for all the trips to NAPA to eventually get the right parts. Now I am looking at the front. the hubs don't want to come off. Any chance that the hubs are connected to the bearing races? I saw that in some of the disc replacement kits. I don't want to beat it to death if I just need to remove the spindle nut.... thanks, -marc
The rear axle with 5 bolts is not original. Gently pry off front hub caps, spindle nut should have a cotter pin that needs to be removed, then keyed washer, or may have bent over tab that needs to be straightened, outer bearing next, whole hub next, brakes may be tight, so should be loosened. Should be videos on You Tube.
Ed
'37 GMC T-18 w/ DD 4-53T, RTO-610, 6231 aux., '95 GMC running gear, full disc brakes, power steering, 22.5 wheels and tires. '47 GMC 1 ton w/ 302, NP-540, 4wd, full width Blazer front axle. '54 GMC 630 w/ 503 gasser, 5 speed, ex fire truck, shortened WB 4', install 8' bed. '55 GMC 370 w/270, 420 4 speed, grain, dump bed truck from ND. Works OK.
The original were 6 lugs but I believe cars were 5 lug. I don't think the drums are secured to the hubs. How would you access the brake shoes? Make sure you loosen the shoes before trying to remove the drum.
OK. I see those rivets. Thanks for the info. Good thing I didn't get to heavy handed trying to separate what I thought was stuck just from rusting to the hub.
OK, I have the drum/hub unit off and managed to match the cylinder after some searching at the local Napa. It's a 1-1/8" cylinder, and the shoes are 11" x 2". The rear assembly is a 1" cylinder with 11" x 1-7/8" shoes. The Napa didn't have the spring kits for the shoes.
The spring return kits and self adjusters I used on the rear were H7018, H2508 and H2509 from Autozone. (see pic in my first post)
Any reason I can't use the same kits on the front?
Last edited by Marc '46; 02/08/20182:28 PM. Reason: added info
yes I had to do this with on the driver's side with the rear plate and will probably have to do it with the front driver's side. I also had to drill out one hole in the shoe mounting plate for the adjuster pivot. I used this write-up, http://www.classicchevy.com/assets/pdf/classicchevy/20-80.pdf but couldn't find the part numbers that they list. Just wanted to make sure that the hardware kits I listed will be ok.
