I never measured them Stu. Even if they are out of spec I think I would run them "as is". There is no lip on the edge to speak of and no groves. Hard to believe from the looks of the old girl when I picked it up. My first guess is the front brakes stopped working years and years ago and were never fixed. And i never tried to seperate the drum and hub. When I do it will be on a bench with plenty of penetrant and hopefully patience. Note the big flat tip screw on the face holding the drum to hub. That will also need removed.

 

The scenario you envision must have occurred on my first R32-4, the red ND truck. I took its welded axle (#342), its rear, the good VA donor axle (#544), and ND transfer case to Chuck to have him work his magic, install his 4.11/1 gear sets, etc. He found that the drums on #342 were amazingly within spec, the drums on #544 were junk, and the original rear axle (as we've swapped texts about) was itself fractured junk. He replaced both cases and half shafts from an early rear axle, and combined them with the 52 brakes. My AZ project truck has been assembled from nationwide donors. Stu

 

Ok couple questions, First, are the big flat screws available? a couple of mine are looking a little worse fo wear. Next is , as far as doners go are the F2 and F3 MH conversions the same or were there differences between the two , (i.e. brake drums ) ?

 

I've not measured one but bet McMaster-Carr can match them.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#flat-head-...crews/=16zc5e8

The F-2, 5700 gvwr, and F-3, 6800 gvwr, were combined in the R3-4 and R32-4 models. Marmon-Herrington upgraded the F-2 trucks to F-3 specs. One difference was special rear F-2 shock mounts having an upward offset versus stock F-2s that offset down. The F-3 got no rear shocks. The other difference is wheels. All F-2s I've seen have 16" singles (Budd 47210s). This has been a puzzle to me because the manuals don't agree with what was done in practice. Stu

Edit - just to show the pieces, here is Mark's F-2 with the upward offset rear shock mount.



Here is a stock F-2 set.



Budd 47210

 

That's odd.....What would be the point of that???

 

The point of which? The shock mount offset was to compensate for the spacers. Might have allowed stock shock absorbers to be fitted. On the wheel differences between the manual and real life practice I have no clue as to why. Stu

Edit - besides Mark's F-2, these two also have 47210s. I'll have to think on others. I don't recall whether Josh got wheels with his F-2. It was all apart when he got it. The other one I've seen in pics sold on eBay and had a mix of wheels. Stu

 

The right side is off and it looks like they need some attention. No grooves but some steps about 1/2 wide each, 2 of them. Also a lip on the outer edge. None of it looks bad, just there.

 

Visually it looks to have plenty of wall, but a brake shop's gauge will tell the story. Stu

 

Good ol' McMaster Carr. Having not taken mine apart, what is the size of those screws?

 

I'm not sure, I haven't seperated the drum from the hub yet but I wouldn't mind replacing them with new ones.

 

The M-H manuals assign it a number, but give no size. Stu

 

Is it just my poor eye sight or do the studs in Caspers hub look like they are just screw in studs and on my F2 hub they look like regular press in wheel studs with a shoulder?

 

Maybe, unless his are just cleaner than yours. Think I see a similar inner circle on yours too. Stu

 

A few more pics

 

The more I look at these pics the more questions I have. I even went to the MH manual and could not find a diagram. These front hubs have ONE wheel bearing? That's all the manual talks about. That's all I see. And the big nut under the MH cap holds the entire hub into the spindle....that's obvious but just think about that. Another question is "what holds the axle into the differential"? The more I think on this the more confused I get. It seems like the axle should slide out of the diff/axle tube when the hub is removed. But what keeps it from sliding out with the hub attached to the end of the axle shaft?

Clear as mud right?