Help!
I had a front brake drum crack then split into two pieces. I'm not sure who was more scared the woman who jumped out into the cross walk or me....

Now I need new front drums and these do not simply sit on the studs. The studs are swaged (crimped) to retain the drum to the hub. My father was a mechanic forever and he warned me about what was needed to change the drums so I'm not making this up.

My big problem is no one around here (western mass) seems to understand what I'm talking about or have the tools necessary to cut the swaged studs off and swage the new ones onto the drum. The NAPA that presently has the parts was going to do the machining but when they downsized their machine shop this was one of the tools to go. Looking at another post in regard to a '67 4x4 I see that Ford didn't sell the drums separate from the hubs. So this is might be an aftermarket only type of repair.

I'm sure a machine shop I use for work can cut the studs completely off and press out the remains from the hub but how does one recreate the swaging?

Has anyone had this done before? Can anyone provide me with a proper name for all the operations necessary? A service who can do it?

Thanks
Geoff

 

You should be able to do it yourself. Just pound out the studs from the front of the drum/hub. get new studs from napa with your new drum and reverse the process of what you did to remove them. I just did the same thing on my 67 f250 4x4, no problems and drives down the hiway like a champ.

 

Ya the lug bolts are just a press fit, so you can bang them out with a hammer and then just buy new ones at Napa or any auto store. You might buy a chisel or use a grinder to cut those rings off, then you might not need to to be excessively forceful with a hammer.

 

Soak the studs real good with a penatrating oil and they will come right out.

 

Using a hammer to pound studs out of hubs is a "shade tree mechanic" method. The correct way is to have the studs pressed out, new studs pressed in by an autoparts stores machine shop..

Beating on studs with a hammer can cause the holes in the drums to become elongated, possibly in the hub itself, and then what do you do?

Studs have serrations on them, these serrations are what retain the drum to the hub.