Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

Bare with me here. The only car with drums I have ever dealt with is a 78 Buick Regal. Those drums just pulled right off. Having not checked the brakes on my 2WD 65 GMC 1000 since I got it; and because it is pulling to the left if I hit the brakes hard, I figured it was time to take a look. Problem is after pulling the front wheel I could not get the drum to come off. It spins freely, so I assume it is not the shoes causing the problem. However, there seems to be three rivets in the drum; shown here at 2, 6, and 10 o'clock...

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8555/...d5b8e3e5_z.jpg

Do these have to be removed? I find it hard to believe that a 49 year old vehicle has never had the drums pulled.

Thanks.

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

Try this: Remove dust cap in center of hub and then take out cotter pin. A castellated nut should then be easily removed. Having never taken my hubs off I am left to assume that the three big rivets attach the drum to the hub.

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

I just ground off the heads and pulled off the drums on my '55 GMC. I had new drums to put on it. I also figured out at that time that some newer wheels will hit the rivet heads before seating against the drum completely. Like Andice said, the hub may have been removed to service brakes in the past.

DAC

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

Thanks guys. Guess I'll have to pick the option I want to try. :)
Really didn't want to have to pull the hub just to check the brakes. LOL. It's pouring rain now so I have some time to think about it.

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

I see this thread is a bit stale, but don't grind those rivets off unless you want to seperate the drum from the hub.

Pull the dust cover, remove the cotter pin and castellated nut and slide the assembly off the spindle like the Andice said. It is far less work than it sounds.

It's a PITA to post images here, so instead I'll point you to my craigslist ad that has images of 69 front drum/spindles so you can see an example of a disassembled drum:
http://sacramento.craigslist.org/pts/4774782732.html

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

Thanks. I have not touched it yet due to holiday traveling.

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

It's just the spindle nut holding front hubs on. As said, don't remove rivets. It's a normal assembly you have. It will come right off. A bearing may fall out the front and the inner bearing is held in by the seal. The manual, any manual, will show all that and tell how to remove.

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

I guess I don't understand how taking the whole hub off allows the drum to then come off. I'll look through my manuals when I get home.

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

It's simple. The hub and the drum is one big honk'in piece. The drum is PERMANENTLY riveted to the hub. To service the shoes you pop the cap, take out the cotter, unscrew the castle nut and pull it off. The only time you de-rivet is to add disc brake kit. Sometimes you pull it off and it leaves the seal hanging and rear/inside bearing stuck on the spindle. If so, be careful how you proceed.

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

Thanks. It'll be another week before I get to play with it now that it gets dark so early.

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

My Truck is a little bigger but it works the same way to get to the front brakes,

Remove the front wheel and now we can see the bearing will need to be pulled to get to the brakes.
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums/...psa43fef89.jpg

Remove the cover to get at the bearings.
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums/...ps901fca97.jpg

Kinda small bearings for a big truck, but it is rated only for 16000 lbs.
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums/...psaca61f08.jpg

once the outer bearing is removed you can pull the front hub/drum assembly off.
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums/...psf5749ad0.jpg

http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums/...ps08b4fe5a.jpg

Remove the inner bearing and seal.
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums/...psf7044ad9.jpg

clean up the bearings and seal then repack with nice clean greese.
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9e55558e.jpg

http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8118de23.jpg

While you have the hub removed its a good time to repack your bearings!

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

Thanks for the details with pics! :thumbsup: Hopefully this weekend I will have time to check them out. When braking hard it pulls to the left, so its about time I found out why. :D

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

Don't rule out the brake hoses as a possible culprit. I removed the front hoses from my Henry J only to find that the hoses had swelled up inside to the point where they had almost no fluid passing through them. Years of moisture and other contamination plus weather can cause brake hose problems.

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

Interesting. I would not have thought of that. Another check to add to my To-Do list. :)

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

"When braking hard it pulls to the left,"

A lot of times its not really the brakes that will make this happen. you need to check out the front suspension and steering too. Ball joints, control arm bushings, tie rod ends, pitman and idler arms, wheel bearing loosens, and get this one, rear axle loose? if it shifts when stopping you'll change direction too.

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

I'm with Ken - once the cotter pin and nut are removed the whole hub and drum come off together - if you are also working on the rears, that might take some prying from each side between the backing plate and drum though - your brake shoes will be sort of stuck in there sometimes and the drum will not come off easily - you will have to fight it with big screwdrivers or cat claws, etc to get it off - I use a hammer or mallet and big screwdrivers drove in between the drum and backing plate to apply pressure, then beat from the back edge outward until they come off.

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

Trying to get rid of the stale URL and learn the image/attachment procedure.

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

Cleaning up my original post...

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

Thanks 60ShortStpeGMC. My master cylinder has now failed, so when the weather clears up, I'll have to replace that and pull the drums to inspect everything else. Thanks for the pics. I was imagining the setup wrong in my head. Makes sense after seeing the pic. Picture is worth a thousand words right? :lol:

I know I have issues on the front left as I can hear a scrapping noise as I spin the tire. Like I said, just waiting on decent weather, at least some sunshine, before tackling it all. Sure would be nice to have a shop to pull this thing into. :)

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

One thing when drums are hard to get off that I have found is to back off the manual brake adjusters. when this is done the shoes will pull back in far enough to allow the drum to be removed.
If you don't feel comfortable rebuilding your master the best price I have found is Napa for a new one, about $85.00 The kit will run you about $22. per side on the master. Watch the items when you take apart the clutch side, the build is different than the brake side as a couple of parts are left out. I didn't catch this and had to pull it again to remove a couple items.
If you don't have one yet, get a manual brake adjusting tool, you will need it for maintenance on this truck. A spring tool will really save you a lot of grief dealing with springs on drum brakes.

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

I just realized I never gave an update here. :headscratch: I did replace the master cylinder. While bleeding the brake lines I found that zero fluid was getting to the right front. No wonder it was pulling left, the right front wasn't doing squat. :lolsmack2: Replaced the hose on that side and all was well; no more pulling and a new MC working good.

Now, I was not thorough at that point, :poke: I never pulled the front drums to inspect the shoes, etc. So Rusty was back on the road, serving me well until yesterday. I was driving to town and started hearing an obnoxious scraping noise; so, back to the house we went. Pulled the drum on the side scraping and the shoes are shot...big time. :ahhhh: I definetly should have checked them back when I was replacing the MC. There is a pretty significant groove in the drum, so I assume I will need to replace it. The question now is, with the drum riveted to the hub, I assume I will be drilling those out and the new drum will no longer be attached to the hub in that manner? I will take the both front drums to see if the one can be turned or not, but I expect not.

Also, are local part store chains good enough to get shoes and drums from or is it best to use an online source?

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

Mine on my 62 were riveted on too, which indicated it was replaced as an assembly.

Checking on line for parts, it seems that the drum is offered separately, most auto stores like NAPA has them, as well as Rock Auto.
Price isn't bad either, under $30.00. So grinding the heads off the rivets and knocking the hub free may be the answer. Make it a floating drum like the new stuff and you are back in business.

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

Thanks for the info Jagarra. :thumbsup:

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

I used to do these old brakes for a living... but Canadian models... they usually have one ore more large machine screws holding them in place I have not seen them riveted like that before.
I would keep those rivets until you verify the condition of the drums. If the drums can be saved then you might need to machine them at a brake shop if it is time for a brake job. if not them just clean everything up make sure everything works including the adjusters and reset your brakes. Make sure you have balanced braking power, that means all cylinders and parts are moving freely and not sweating/leaking.

You may as well repack your front bearings and put in new seals at the same time because if they have not been off in years then they will likely leak when you put them back on.

Have fun and wear dust mask, brake dust is nasty stuff, not good for you!

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

In post 3 in this thread I mentioned about the potential problems those rivet heads can cause besides the need to grind them off for drum replacement so here goes again but a novel this time.

My '55 GMC uses the same brake drums on all 4 as the un-riveted rear drums on my '70 GMC, so it is possible that the same drums are on your era half ton trucks too.

Anyway, when I got the '55 all I was after to get it running and stopping well and I just made the brakes work by bleeding and adjustment for the time being. Felt fine with a little pull to one side, can't remember which. During this time I ran 2 different types of wheels that I had to keep re-torquing quite often. The first set were some stock Toyota wheels and the second set were some chrome modulars. Both were loosening up every hundred miles or so maybe less than that.

Fast forward to when I had saved enough cash to buy drums, shoes, flex lines and kits for the wheel and master cylinders. Up on jack stands then I noticed the rivets and how badly he heads were wore down on them along with rub marks on the back of the wheels. Both of those sets of wheels were tightening against the rivet heads before seating against the drum/hub assembly.

Maybe I'm the only one that this has happened to but it happened. The modulars went back on after the brake rebuild and stayed tight until I got new tires and went to a stock 1970 wheel a couple years later.

Never had any braking problems at all with the drums not being riveted.

DAC

Re: Brake Drums Won't Come Off
 

I do remember your first post, but I also appreciate the detailed info you provided in this one. :thumbsup:

I guess my main question in post #21 was just being curious if the drums had to be bought separately or if someone sold the drum and hub assembly riveted together, or if anyone bothered to re-rivet them when replacing the drum. Although rereading that part of the post, that was not a clear question in the post. No matter though, I bought what I needed yesterday based on or your original post of having no issues with them not being riveted.

I checked some of the online shops mentioned by others above, but went with a local shop once I found out they had everything I needed at a competitive price and I could pick it all up (no shipping).

Thanks for all the input everyone. I hope the weather cooperates this weekend so I can get Rusty rolling again. My wife has spring time hauling to-do's piling up on me. :lolsmack2: