Re: IML: Job number "next" - hub

[Imperial48@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 10/14/04 11:04:04 PM, dickb@xxxxxxxxx writes:

> Well, live and learn!ÂÂ Iâve worked on hundreds of cars since my first job at age 10 â more than 60 years, and Iâve never seen a hub cap that was threaded in a car built after about 1935. This was a front hub, right?

Yes, FRONT!
>  Â
>  If the drum wonât come off even after youâve removed the bearings, I suspect the brake linings are in contact with the drum â perhaps rusted in place (if the wheel wonât turn at all).ÂÂ 

> (It only turns when I pull it with the truck but doesn't turn freely and leaves black marks on the garage floor)   That's a good analysis and exactly what I've been thinking!   Either we have two dumdums or a couple of really smart fellas working on this!   Ha!   I prefer to think it's the latter!   :-)

I have removed only the bearings on the outer side of the shaft.   I can't get to the inner bearings until I can remove the hub.

> If you've backed all the way off on the adjusters and it still wont release, see if there is a slot for inspecting the lining thickness on the inside of the backing plate â some cars have these. Â   If there is a slot that gives you a view of any portion of a brake lining, try to insert a tool in that slot to pry the lining away from the drum.ÂÂ

> I haven't done that yet but it's my next step in trying to solve the problem.   It's been many years between a professional occupation to the years of a teenage grease mechanic.   I hope I'm still up to this!!!!!

>  Heat will help, but donât use more than a propane torch â you donât want to warp the drum.Â

>  I have that and that's what I'll have to use next.   I was hoping I could avoid it but apparently not.  

> Perhaps an industrial type heat gun would work also. Do not use a MAPP torch or an acetylene torch â they can get much too hot! 

>  I'm beginning to think that HEAT is the only way to go although I'm a little leery of it.   I used to do this kind of stuff when I was 18 years old and working in a full service gas station to make my way through college.   Somehow it isn't as easy now.   I wonder if age and experience have possibly given me a little more respect for the UNKNOWN!   It seems like I used to will it and it just happened.   Now I cross my fingers and hope for the best!   Time is a very STRANGE machine!  

By the way, the new Firestone 890x15 tires arrived and I've had two of them mounted on the rims.   They are HUGE!   They stand about an inch higher than the pickup tires!   However, I forgot to mention the "beauty rims" and when they bbalanced them they put the weights in the front so I'll have to take them back and have them redo it or loose the beauty rims which makes the limo look pretty elegant.   The 5" whitewalls on the larger tires look GREAT!   There is still plenty of "black left on the outer edge and that's what I was afraid might be lost.   NOT SO!   The limo was so low with the 8/20x15" that were on it when I bought it in 1962 that I really had to be careful of dragging. The undercarriage.   With the new original size tires that's going to make a HUGE difference!   I should have done this years ago but the lower profile did give a look of sleekness that I'm sure is going to bother me until I get used to the elevated body due to the HUGE tires.
>  Â
>  Dick Benjamin (chalking up yet another âlessonâ)  As I said, "Time is a VERY strange machine!   ;-)

I sooooo appreciate the caring quality of the members of this CLUB!   What a fabulous bunch of caring people!   I am blessed!


Ned ÂÂÂÂ'48 Crown Imperial