Removal of "AA" brake drum. HELP

[Don/WI]

I am helping a friend take the drums off the rear axle of his "AA". We got one off because we were able to release the brakes. On the other one we have not been successful in moving the brake adjuster. Tryed to pull off with a two-legged puller with no movement. Are there any suggestions out there short of cutting the drum off? I would hate to do that because it appears to be a good drum from the outside. Thanks for any helpful suggestions. Don/WI

[Farrell In Vancouver]

This can be tough, but you can hope. It stands to reason that the brakes were set up to work when the truck was parked. That would mean the drum was free to turn before the shoes siezed up from sitting. Try to get the drum to rotate using a long bar on the studs for leverage. A little banging on the outside of the drum may free it up some. If you are successful, try prying the drum away enough to get some lube on the shoes to make them slippery all around the drum. It may now be possible to rotate and pull the drum/shoes over any ridge that may be present at the outer edge of the drum. If you can get a little then keep going untill she comes free. Soaking and heating the adjuster a few cycles might allow you to back the brakes off too. This will take anywhere from an hour to three days depending on how rusted up they are. Another note Don, do a search on drum pullerss and see if you can scrape enough scrap together to make one. It will eventually save the day and the drum.
Good luck and don't give up!

[Bob C]

As Farrell said the first thing is to get the drum to turn. If you try to pull it before you
get it to turn you are just going to ruin parts. This has been covered quite a few times
just do a search for brake drums. Here is a link to one of the better threads.
http://forums.aa-fords.com/viewtopic.ph ... brake+drum

Bob

[1crosscut]

Don
If if the drum turns you may just need to get the shoe to slide past the wear ridge on the inside of the drum. I ran the flame of my torch around and around and around (dizzy yet?) the drum to warm it up and make it expand. Worked well for me.
Dave

[vtwinsideways]

My Pops and I tried the bolt style, hammering the axle from the opposite side, heat wrench, and a professional puller big enough to pull semi hubs (stripped it). Finally we copied a puller that someone posted on here. This is a method of last resort. First we tried a 6 ton jack then a 10 ton then a 12 ton. We were ready to give up, so we went in for lunch and left the pressure on. When we came back I put just one more pump in hoping for the best and it popped off. We had the drum checked out and it spec'ed out fine, no distortion. The base of the jack goes between the threaded rods facing out. The head goes against the axle nut which should be threaded almost flush with the axle end. You must measure the threaded rod to make sure the plates are parallel or they will stretch and break. If you need an old wheel center, I may know where there is a stack. Luke



You'll notice in the second photo, the area on the end of the axle is shiney and without threads, this is from the "brass hammer" attempt. While the very large brass hammer did not damage the axle, the busted nut did. Don't be scared, a triangle file can fix anything. Luke

[vtwinsideways]

The square plate is 1/2 in black (hot rolled) steel. It was just some scrap I found at a yard that happened to fit. The bottom plate is an old Budd wheel that I have cut the spokes and rim off of. The rods are 3/4 mild from the hardware store. Tensile strength was listed on the label and it put 3 rods at just enough for the 12 ton jack, so I decided to go with 5 rods to insure they would not break or stretch. Luke

[E.Moore]

This is the worst rear hub I've ever removed. This rear end sat around for decades outside. Someone tried to remove the hubs years ago and butchered one axle and cut away the drum on the other side. My rear hub puller is made from 1/2" plate steel which bent with a 20 ton jack during the pull. A torch had to be used to heat the hub under pressure and when it came loose, it sounded like a cannon blast. The hub did not jump very far, but the bang was really loud. I had figureed that the hub was stuck at the keyway, but the hub came loose 180 degrees away from the keyway during the torch heating. The pattern for making wheel stud alignment holes in the 1/2" plate can be easily done by taking any AA wheel and placing it on a piece of steel plate and tracing the wheel holes onto the steel plate. Remove the AA wheel and use a drill press or a cutting torch to open the holes. Use 3/4" all thread rod and make 4 holes at each corner of the steel plates and use it as shown in the photos.

[Shorthaul]

Encouraging photos. What I learn from them are, I need to get a larger jack and also move my operation out doors. The other choice is , since the wheels spin easily and the brakes work, leave the thing alone. What do you think?

[E.Moore]

Reasons for removing the rear hubs would be for inspection of the rear shoes, inspection of the emergency brake shoes, inspection or replacement of the rear wheel bearings and grease seal, inspection of the brake drum, inspection or repalcement of the axle seal, inspection or replacement of the brake shoe return springs, or for inspectino & replacement of the brake shoe wedges, adjustment cone and shoe rollers. The track that the shoe rollers ride on are usually worn out, which will cause the shoes to drag on the drum until the brakes are used, and with worn tracks, there is excessive brake rod movement, which can lead to one pushing the brake pedal harder to get the thing to stop. Welding up the tracks and dressing them down for the correect shoe height will make for much better braking. There is a KRW tool that is used to check the brake shoe alignment on the tracks. It checks the shoes to make sure they are centered in the drum. All brake adjustments begin here and end up working your way to the pedal adjustment. When the brakes on the AA are correct, the thing stops pretty good.

[vtwinsideways]

Shorthaul, if your truck is up and running otherwise, Several have suggested in the past to loosen the axle nut just a little (maybe 1/8 turn at a time) and drive it up and down the block until the hub comes free. We did not have that luxury, as the truck is nearly completely disassembled. Luke

[Shorthaul]

Thanks for the advice.

The rear end is out of the truck, I just got tired of screwing with it. When I'M not so lazy I will modify the puller to hold a larger jack and fiddle with it until....................

[TomH]

If you can get your hands on a puller like this, do it. I tried several different pullers with no luck, this baby popped it right off. There are no jacks, threaded rod, or steel plates to deal with. The handle is made to be beaten with a sledge hammer. I borrowed this one from a fellow AAer who told me he never saw a drum this thing wouldn't pull. It might break the drum but it Will pull it.
Tom H

[vtwinsideways]

Didn't think to take pics at the time, but trust me Tom those can be broken too. The one we shredded was borrowed and wow did it hurt to replace $$$.

[Farrell In Vancouver]

Thanks for the advice.

The rear end is out of the truck, I just got tired of screwing with it. When I'M not so lazy I will modify the puller to hold a larger jack and fiddle with it until....................

[SHELBY MESSER]

Here is the rear hub puller that I had made at a local machine shop for around $30. My hubs came off very easy, maybe I never needed a puller at all. With this design I don't think there is very much pull on the threads on the hub as through because you screw it on hand tight on the hub then ( I had the puller drill and taped to 3/4"NF threads. I went to a a local bolt store and picked up a grade 8 bolt. I made a 1/8" brass spacer to go inside the puller between the axle shaft and the 3/4" bolt to prevent damage to axle). Using a wrench to put tention the axle, remember this is not to pull the stuck hub off at this time just hard enough to have pressure on on the axle. Then with a large hammer make one square solid hard hit, only one hit? Check to see if hub came loose. If not try to tighten the 3/4" bolt and hit again if needed, May come off by tightening the 3/4"bolt. If anyone would like to have one made be sure to bring a AA hub if you have one, will be less cost. I brought just the screw on hub cap and he had to make a stud to screw the cap on then make the puller. I posted this same puller 9-28-09 it has been viewed over1200 times, with less that 5 comments on this puller. Hope this helps!!! Shelby, Louisiana.