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hey all , rebuilding my 30-31 rearend and wanted to know if anyone has any info on it torque specs and clearances exc ( just bought the green book not sure what in it yetstill in the mail ) also the brake drums i have were steel drums and are deff shot from ware , i had an idea of sleving and welding a ring in the drum to bring it back to the 14 in they were (also looking for an exact new drum measurment just to make sure is 14 in ) or spinning the drum and mig welding the surface to build it back up and then grind it back to spec , spinning prob disipate the heat and stop it from warping . has anyone tryed anything to repair the drums becuse from what i can see no one makes any new ones or is thre ??? thanks joe more questions probably to folow

Hello!

Yea noone is making any new ones...

The drums are suprisingly thin so I'm guessing welding will distort the drum and unless you have a lathe to turn it true again in relation to the tapered axle its going to be nearly impossible to make it true again.

Where are you located? Theres AA'ers all over the country and other countries and if their anything like me they have a stockpile of spare parts or know who does. Usually you use the best of what you can find. Even if the AA brakes are marginal you wont have 2 tons of stuff in the back your trying to stop and the marginal brakes will stop the truck on a dime if its unloaded. Im not saying you should just slap it all together and see what happens but measure parts and inspect them and cherry pick the best of what you got. How far out of 14 are yours worn?

Im sure someone around has good drums. Berts in Denver, Co has ALOT of good origonal parts for a fair price and they do ship (be warned as you know AA drums are HEAVY - fastenal and greyhound are great cheap heavy/bulky shipping options.)

Im located in new jersey , yea i am concerned about the warping issue , I do have a lathe which i was going to make a hub to spin it on to try and center it when i cut it and then use a brake lathe to grind it , also use it with a very slow motor to spin the drum when i weld it , thinkin if i spin it and weld it in a spiral and take brakes in between for it not to overheat and also find a way to cool it also from other side may just keep it cool enought not to warp too bad not a mechinest but have access to all there fun toys... but i am going to carsile and hopefully hershey swap meets so maybe ill find something there.

They switched to cast iron drums in '32. The '32/'33 drums will fit the Timken rear ends and front too.

I would hunt up the later cast drums if you can. Thicker and less prone to brake fade. Also keep in mind your going to be going max of like 35-40mph

Hello Joe,
I don't know where in Jersey you are, but I'm in Pennsylvania about an hour west of Phillipsburg right off of I-78. I probably could find you some good used steel drums. Usually front drums make the best candidates to reuse. I also have an old truck brake drum grinding machine that I can true them up again. Contact me at tiredtruck@verizon.net if I can help.

Keith

Keith I'll prob get in touch with you soon once I get everything apart on the truck have an extra rear I'm going to strip down and see how those drums look. Question I have because I don't have the parts books are the worm drive rearends with e-brake are the drums the same as the lbevel?? If so I have another two drums to check

Joe, worm drive drums are different than the bevel gear ones. Keith