The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Front Brake Drum Removal

'53 3100 1/2 Ton


got my brake shoes in, figured i'd replace them and see what else i need to replace in the drums, but i get the wheels off, apply penetrating oil to the lugs and go to swinging old faithful on the drum but they won't budge!
looking at these photos, i circled in red what looks like snapped off bolts on BOTH drum faces. i figured these might be threaded holes to make drum removal easier, but previous owners might've snapped their bolts off in these threaded holes and just given up. if this is the case, they shouldn't be the reason why i can't remove the drums, right? drums spin somewhat freely, by the way. (driver-side more than passenger-side, but free enough).
i read one thread on here on the '60-'66 forum about there being an adjusting screw on the drum face to loosen the brake shoes; that you rotate the drum til a star shaped screw shows through a hole in the drum face, turn it with a screwdriver and the shoes will release the drum.. but nothing like that on my drums.
what do i do?

you guys haven't let me down yet with all the questions i've posed to you, hopefully this is no different.

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Hello,

I think this should be in "Driveline", but regardless.

Why not pull the hub and drum off as an "assembly", look on the backside and progress from there? Then take a hydraulic press to it (support the drum and push on the hub)to separate them.

Hammering on a hub always make me nervous about brinneling the ball bearings.

Good luck and have fun.

Bill

The "broken bolts" are actually rivets. In order to remove the drum from the hub, those will either need to drilled out, or have the heads cut off and driven out. As BDammers47 stated, it's best to remove the drum and hub as an assembly from the truck to do this to prevent damage to the bearings/spindle. Once the rivets are removed, the drum should come off the hub with little issue. The rivets do not need to be replaced, they are only there to hold the drum and hub together when the truck was originally built, they serve no purpose after that. It's essentially the same as the speed nuts that re found on late model cars.
On a side note, if you are planning on using an aftermarket wheel, the rivets should be removed, as they will cause a wheel seating problems. Aftermarket wheels do not have the "pockets" to clear the rivet heads.

since those rivets are still intact, it means my brake shoes have never been replaced in 60 years?
so i'll remove the hub as one piece and take it to a machine shop to have the rivets removed and the drum separated.. (i don't have the heavy duty tools to do that myself), and when it comes time to replace the shoes again, or open up the drum, i won't have to do such major surgery next time, right?

Not necessarily. Some shops will remove the drum and hub as an assembly, and machine the drum without removing it from the hub. Then you have shops that only replace the friction material without resurfacing the drums, what is commonly known in the business today as a "pad slap".
You really don't need any heavy duty tools to remove the rivets, a good set of drill bits, or a sharp chisel, and a punch and hammer are all that's really needed.

I don't know Hucks so if these are them this won't apply but from my experience brakes is brakes....Brakes
When I've had this problem I try to loosen the star first then when I know it's frozen start looking to knock the keeper springs off from the backing plate.
The adjustments access is on the back/inboard side.
Grind off the rivet/nail looking heads and use a drift or something to punch the shoes some. Study the pic and read through it.
If you can get any of the others off you'll have something to compare...

Whenever I change front brakes I just take the hub and drum off together. That gives me a chance to inspect, clean, re-grease and then adjust the front wheel bearings; as well as change the shoes. Don't see any reason to remove rivets except for comments above concerning after market wheels.

when i said "heavy duty tools" i was more referring to the mention of a hydraulic press.

forty9, how do you even open the drum asembly if you don't remove the rivets? even if i remove the drum assembly from the truck, i'll still need to shear off the rivets to separate the drum from the back plate, right?

at any rate, i got a new chisel and punch set, i'll have a go at these rivets sometime this weekend, thanks for the inputs everybody

The backing plate is a separate piece, it is not attached to the drum. The rivets only attach the drum to the hub, which can be removed as an assembly by removing the dust cap, cotter pin, and adjusting nut. once that's done, the assembly will come off, and the brake shoes can be accessed. If you need to back the shoes off, the slot for the adjuster is found on the backside of the backing plate. The rivets do require removal if you need to replace the drum itself.

I don,t think there is an understanging of the brake setup here. You need to remove the hub and drum as an assembly to see what you have. The only reason to separate the drums from the hubs is to install new drums.

The adjuster is on the backing plate not the drum
your pics shows the dust cover still on. remove the dust cover then remove the spindel nut.

depending on the type of brakes you have the window For the star adjuster will either be on the top or bottom

sometimes rust will hold the drum on
I have some more pics here

See if the directions on removing hubs and drums helps you. In 1954 1/2 tons used Bendix brakes.

http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/shop/1954truck/54ctsm0305.html

Drum to hub rivets are easiest removed like frame rivets, Cut an X in them with a cut-off wheel, cut the heads off with an air chisel, then punch them out with a punch loaded in an air hammer. No hydraulic presses should be used around the front hub, except maybe replacing the bearing races, and these can be done by hand--just use a brass punch or you will gouge your hub and be in other kinds of trouble.