Rear axle help needed by total newbie - 64 Valiant

simonwt said

I have just acquired a 1964 Valiant V200 and having real trouble understanding what I'm dealing with at the back-end. Trying to remove rear hubs to work on the brakes, and what I'm looking at here doesn't match the limited description in the original 1964 service manual. I was expecting to see a castle nut and use a hub puller to get in there. But what is this and what do I do with it to open it up? I'm hesitant to just attempt something without advice as I don't want to damage the hub. Is this axle original to the car, or has it been swapped out? All advice welcome, in as much detail as possible for this total novice! Thanks in advance...View attachment 1715333734

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In 1964, Mother Mopar used 2 different rear ends, one is the 7 1/4 used under "A" body cars; which you have; to remove the drum back the adjuster star wheel to create slack so the drum can slide over the shoes. Also as stated the drum is stuck to the axle flange with rust and as stated use lots of a good penetrating oil like P-B Blaster, wack the area between the studs with a hammer, pull the drum off. Maybe heat the area between studs with a propane torch, then wack with hammer, then pull. The 7 1/4 should be covered in the FSM; it is in mine; go back and look again

The other rear end is the 8 3/4 which has the castle nut and you need the hub puller to get the drum off, thank your lucky stars you are not working on one of them....they didn't come apart well when new.......50 years old, could be a day job just to get it off