Brake drum cracking

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shotgunvic64

shotgunvic64

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I’ve been having issues with my front passenger 9 inch brakes, there is a crack all around the studs and am wondering if I can press out the old hub and press it into a new brake drum? Its my daily driver and I need to take care of this ASAP. Shotgun

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That is dangerous as hell. The studs on those are swedged/ riveted by the studs. You need to cut off/ grind the studs, or use a swedge cutter, or other means. If you just press them out of the hub, you'll ruin the holes in the hub
 
Oct 17, 2018#15
Local Time:
10:47 PM
Got back to work on the brake conversion today. After gathering info from members, I decided to knock the studs out from the back side to save the drums.(Thanks my5thmopar.)Turns out it wasn't as bad as I thought. Drilled the heads of the studs in side the drum deep enough to not get into the hub with a 1/2 " bit and then just punch em off the rest of the way with an air hammer. Then just clean up the buggers.

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That's one way to do it. The way I do it is, get a 5/8 metal cutting hole saw and go right over the stud and cut the swedges off. Drum will fall right off. Put new drum on. Use the same studs. Done. Since the new drum centers on the hub, it does not have to be swedged back on.
 
RustyRatRod said:
That's one way to do it. The way I do it is, get a 5/8 metal cutting hole saw and go right over the stud and cut the swedges off. Drum will fall right off. Put new drum on. Use the same studs. Done. Since the new drum centers on the hub, it does not have to be swedged back on.
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So the new drum will be snug on the original studs after this process? It won’t move around?
 
shotgunvic64 said:
So the new drum will be snug on the original studs after this process? It won’t move around?
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The drum centers on the hub. The studs have nothing to do with locating the drum. They only hold the drum in place. I still have no understanding why auto makers swedged drums on. All of them did it at some point. The only reason I can think of was to keep the drum in place while the car was going down the assembly line. Much like the small flat metal clips you sometimes find on the rear studs. But, as far as the studs go, they serve no purpose whatsoever in locating the drum. The drums are what is referred to as "hub centric" since they use the hub to center up on. But yes, with the swedges cut off, when you install the drum and without the wheel on, you will be able to "rock" the drum back and forth on the studs a small amount. This is irrelevant since the drum centers on the hub. And since when the wheel is installed a "drum sammich" is created, the drum certainly cannot go anywhere. Swedged on drums were one of those things we all could have gone without, IMO.
 
RustyRatRod said:
The drum centers on the hub. The studs have nothing to do with locating the drum. They only hold the drum in place. I still have no understanding why auto makers swedged drums on. All of them did it at some point. The only reason I can think of was to keep the drum in place while the car was going down the assembly line. Much like the small flat metal clips you sometimes find on the rear studs. But, as far as the studs go, they serve no purpose whatsoever in locating the drum. The drums are what is referred to as "hub centric" since they use the hub to center up on. But yes, with the swedges cut off, when you install the drum and without the wheel on, you will be able to "rock" the drum back and forth on the studs a small amount. This is irrelevant since the drum centers on the hub. And since when the wheel is installed a "drum sammich" is created, the drum certainly cannot go anywhere. Swedged on drums were one of those things we all could have gone without, IMO.
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I’m going to try that out since it seems fairly easy to do, all I need is the hole saw. I’m tired of drums and been wanting to convert to disc brakes so it seems like I can get by for now with this method. Shotgun.
 
shotgunvic64 said:
I’m going to try that out since it seems fairly easy to do, all I need is the hole saw. I’m tired of drums and been wanting to convert to disc brakes so it seems like I can get by for now with this method. Shotgun.
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It's easy to do especially with a drill press. Takes less than 5 minutes a hub. You can do it with a hand drill, too, you just have to be careful and keep the drill as straight as possible. The way I do it, I just always drill through the swedges all the way through the drum until I hit the hub. That way you know you have cut the swedges completely off.
 
RustyRatRod said:
It's easy to do especially with a drill press. Takes less than 5 minutes a hub. You can do it with a hand drill, too, you just have to be careful and keep the drill as straight as possible. The way I do it, I just always drill through the swedges all the way through the drum until I hit the hub. That way you know you have cut the swedges completely off.
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I would inspect everything real good there. Something had to cause that drum to crack like that. It would be good to find the cause.
 
RustyRatRod said:
I would inspect everything real good there. Something had to cause that drum to crack like that. It would be good to find the cause.
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I know that the drum would get really hot and I would have to pull over to let it cool and the adjuster would expand the whole way which is odd and probably caused the shoes to be eaten up and the drum to get very hot.
 
shotgunvic64 said:
I know that the drum would get really hot and I would have to pull over to let it cool and the adjuster would expand the whole way which is odd and probably caused the shoes to be eaten up and the drum to get very hot.
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I am sure. I would certainly endeavor to find out why. You don't want the same problem all over again. I wonder if the self adjuster is either on backwards or on the wrong side. That could cause it.
 
RustyRatRod said:
I am sure. I would certainly endeavor to find out why. You don't want the same problem all over again. I wonder if the self adjuster is either on backwards or on the wrong side. That could cause it.
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In this pic everything seems in order...

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Pay close attention to make sure that adjuster is on the correct side.
 
Nevermind. I forgot this is the front. dammit. lol
 
I think it might be missing a return spring between the shoes though. I'll have to dig out my service manual.
 
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