Brake Drums

[John Hertog <crossram@xxxx>]

Hey all,

Local brake shop in my area is run by an older man, who used to work for the
county garage in the late 50's early 60's , and serviced all the Mopar cop
cars. He's taught me much about the 55-64 type of brake drums. He spent most
of his times trying to keep the brakes working on these cop cars - not an
enviable task. They were the weakest link...Basically, where we stand today,
there's almost no way to "do it right" . If your drums are worn, firstly,
there are almost no new replacement drums available anywhere, and at a
reasonable price. And secondly, the technology to remove the old drum from
the hub and replace with a new one has pretty much disappered.

These drums are indeed an integral part of the hub; they are held on to the
hub by the wheel lugs, that have been staked over to hold the drums in
place. In order to remove a drum from a hub and replace with a newer unit,
there are two special tools involved.

Tool #1 is made to "cut" the peened - over section of the wheel lugs. Then
the lugs can be pressed out of the hub, and the old drum easily removed.
NOTE : any attempt to press out the lug WITHOUT cutting the peened-over
portion will result in damage to the grooves in the hub that hold the lugs
into place !

Tool#2 is made to peen over the new lugs once the new drum is installed in
the hub (with new lugs already pressed in ) . This duplicates the process by
which these things were manufactured.

The big problem is that tools #1 and #2 are NLA - no longer available. I
have seen them listed in old Wagner brake tool catalogs and such. Since
such drums went out of style many years ago, brake shops have forgotten this
technique, deep-sixed or lost the tools, and none are to be found anywhere.

So - conclusion? our best source of drums is - salvage yards. There's still
a good supply of these out there, with plenty of meat still on the drums.

John