The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Tons 'o Fun One ton rear brakes

I just purchased a 1947 one ton stake bed with the hydraulic dump. The rear brakes are bad and leaking. I backed off the two adjusting bolts and couldn't get the drum to come off. I pulled the eight hub bolts and pulled the axle. Still no luck. What could be holding this on?? The axle housing is threaded and there appears to be a sleave inside with a notch in the bottom but other than that I can't see anything holding this on.

There should be two slotted screws on the drum face, once removed the drum should come off. If not, then the rear bearing assembly has to be disassembled. It does require a special axle nut socket to do this, but they are redily available from the parts stores or tool dealers. Here is the shop manual page showing how the hub comes apart.

There are no slotted bolts on the brake drum and the page from the shop manual doesn't look a thing like what I have. There is no slotted nut like you would find at the end of a spindle just something that looks like a long sleeve with a single slot.

You may need to clean any gunked up oil out of the hub to see the nut. It will be a round nut with 6 slots around the outside diameter. The axle nut socket has 6 pins that engage those slots. There will be two of them per side, with a locking plate in between that has a tab that fits in the slot of the spindle. Once those are removed, the drum and hub assembly will come off.

https://picasaweb.google.com/wmhatfield/BrakesBearings#5529976960122832162

Here's a shot of the nut you seek... I forwent the axle nut in favor of a punch and lightly tapped all around - The nuts should come off pretty easy with all that axle grease!

I wish I had taken my rear bearing off when I did this... I spent hours banging at the drum with a sledge until I got it off. My cylinders were completely rusted and seized open.

Oh well - you live, you learn!