The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Front Hub Saga

Here's a tale of what not to do. I ordered new front and rear brake drums for my brake job. Rears went on no problems. I "assumed" that the old front drums would slide off the front hubs. Nope - so I got the bright idea to pound the hub bolts down with a heavy hammer to remove the hub. Pound, pound, pound and not a bit of movement - all I succeeded in doing was flaring the top of the bolt. I now have to use a hex die to fix the bolts! DUMB!

By "hub bolts", do you mean the wheel studs? In ant case, if you damaged them enough to flare the ends, the best bet would be to replace them, as it is difficult to get the threads repaired if the metal has been distorted that much. replacement is cheap insurance against part failure, especially when dealing with anything involving the wheels and brakes.

When you press them out support the back side with a piece of pipe around the head of the stud.

The original front drums are held on with 3 rivets. Did you cut them off if they were still there?

Thanks for the responses! I originally cleaned the outside surface of the hubs but don't see any rivet heads. I'm assuming they go front to back? I'll clean the inside of the drums tonight to see if I can spot them on the inside. (There was lots of crud in the inside - I'm surprised the truck ever stopped). Once I spot them - then I just drill them out?
(PS They sent new hub bolts with the drums so thats one bit of good news).

I have to say as frustrating as my mistakes are, I like doing the work myself. Sounds dopy but I feel I have more of a right to own the truck.

That, Dave, is the JOY part of owning a stovebolt. We all make mistakes, but we learn a lot of stuff we can share with others!

Just looked at Jimmie V's '54 bearings thread. The was a design change somewhere between 46 and 54. In Jimmie's thread, there is a schematic showing the 54's hubs are inside the brake drum and with rivets. My 46 shop manual shows the hubs outside the drum without rivets. Now it makes sense why I don't see rivets. The good news is my eyes aren't as bad as I feared. The bad news is my magic bullet to drill out the rivets is now not an option (rats). Am I back to attempting to pound the wheel studs back thru the drum -or- is this something for a brake shop to press them out?

Dave,

I do not know what the parts in 46 look like. Do you have access to both sides of the wheel stud?

I have used a press like this one to easily/safely remove rear wheel studs on 47-54 1/2 ton trucks.

TC, that looks like it may work. I just measured the distance from the outside rim of the drum to the center of the stud. It is 3 1/2 inches - is that press deep enough? Couldn't tell from the Harbor Freight picture how deep it was. Thanks!

Some wheel studs are swaged to hold the brake drum in place, and require a special cutter to remove the expanded part of the stud before pressing them out of the hub.
Jerry