....and Brake Drums some good news?

[John Hertog <crossram@xxxx>]

Hi to all...

I agree with Gary Nelson, and Warren, on that one - do not rejoice too
quickly !

Very interesting that the factory service manuals, 57 thru 63, do not cover
front or rear brake drum servicing. Only replacement is mentionned.

In order to sell complete brake drum assemblies, the vendor / manufacturer
would have to stock FOUR different assemblies, as each drum assembly is
different from all others; front hubs are different from rear hubs, of
course, and right sides are different from left sides due to stud direction.
Therefore each assembly is unique - look at the parts book !

The brake drums were sold by Chrysler as an entire assembly, INCLUDING THE
HUB. That is for a good reason - they cannot be separated, at least by the
average home mechanic. The drums are held on to the hubs by the wheel studs,
which are staked on (mushroomed) by a special tool. Which is, of course, no
longer available. In order to remove the studs, and separate drum from hub,
one would need to un-mushroom the studs before pressing them out - again,
another special tool, no longer available.

If the special tool is not used to remove the studs, the hole that they fit
into, in the hub, will be damaged and new studs will not seat. Since they
have been mushroomed, they are wider as they come out of the hub/drum than
they were when installed.
One can prevent this from happening by grinding down the studs, almost
level to the surface of the hub/drum, before punching them out.

I am not convinced that there is a need to mushroom the new studs, as the
factory did, thereby affixing the drum permanently onto the hub. It seems
that new drums center themselves pretty good using the hub, and of course
the 5 studs. But, again, if the studs do indeed need to be mushroomed,
where to find the tool to do it ?

If anybody knows of a source for the two necessary tools to perform the drum
swap, please let me know !

John

"Warren Anderson wrote:

The tooling necessary AND the expertise needed to properly
transfer new drums to old hubs should not be impossible to find. The studs
will have to be new also in order to provide the OE staked on configuration.
This is where the special tooling comes in. Left hand threaded studs some
have noted can be impossible to find and RH seems OK but will then not be
OE on left (drivers side) wheels. If the center of the new drum pilots
properly on the old hub, staked studs are, IMHO, not entirely necessary. In
any case, each stud is pressed out singularly so as not to distort hub."


----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary W Nelson" <Gary@xxxx>
To: "gadickel" <mythmythos@xxxx>; <Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2003 12:34 AM
Subject: Re: [Chrysler300] Headliner's and Brake Drums some good news?


> Hi All
>
> I Called Kanter today re: the drum subject. For under $100 I wanted to
find
> out what we would get. As I expected you do not get hub. When I asked more
> questions he did not sound to informed. After, I went to inspect my 57
> drums. They are a 3 piece unit. The cast iron drum, center plate and hub.
> If the drum and center plate come as a unit them the studs and hub will
> need to be pressed out. If it is only the drum then it will be one heck of
> a job to replace as the drum is staked onto center plate at 19 places
> around the perimeter. If it only requires pressing out the hub then that
> will have to be done very carefully with press fixtures. If one starts
> pressing on the hub with out support fixtures it will distort the center
> plate and trash it.
> For what it is worth I suspect that it will be a Chinese part. Who in the
> US could tool up, sell low quantities to a vendor and the vendor mark up
> all for under $100. That said it does not mean all bad. I could be proven
> wrong.
>
> Gary, The Parts Doc
>
> At 03:16 PM 07/01/2003 +0000, gadickel wrote:
>
> >Hi All,
> >
> >Glad to learn that Kanter's Boontown, New Jersey, will be offering
> >reproduction brake drums for 1957 - 1962 era Chrysler products
> >starting later this summer. So says Fred in the latest catalog. It
> >appeares they will be priced within reason too. Could be we will see
> >them offered elesewhere as well. That is good news.
> >
> >Also right now on Ebay there is a fellow offering "correct"
> >headliners for 1962-1967 Chryslers if my memory serves me right. He
> >mentions these are correct for each year he is offering, and when he
> >correctly mentioned the "basket weave" pattern of the 62, I started
> >to think he is probably telling the truth. I bought my new headliner
> >about two years ago on Ebay and I think it is the same guy. In my
> >case the pattern was 100% correct and the material "alive" (not dried
> >out) and in good shape.
> >
> >Tom
> >
> >
> >
> >To send a message to this group, send an email to:
> >Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> >For list server instructions, go to
> >http://www.chrysler300club.com/yahoolist/inst.htm
> >
> >To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> >Chrysler300-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> >
> >
> >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
>
>
> To send a message to this group, send an email to:
> Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> For list server instructions, go to
http://www.chrysler300club.com/yahoolist/inst.htm
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> Chrysler300-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>