59 American front brake drum

It looks like I can purchase front brake drums for my car on eBay, but they are without the hub/bearing/stud assembly.

I guess that the way to use this repair option is to take the old drum assembly to a machine shop, with the new drum in hand, and ask them to disassemble the hub from the old drum and mount the new drum on the old hub. Presumably I can put in a new bearing set and seals.

Is this correct?

Any alternatives/help/etc. greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Pete


Edited by pwreimers - Jan/20/2017 at 10:05am

That sounds like the correct procedure. That is what is involved with a 68 Javelin with front drums. When these cars were new the drums and hubs came apart easily but are now rusted together.

Beware of the difference in thickness of the wheel mating surface between the new and old drums. When test fitting the modern replacement drums for my Javelin luckily I noticed the thickness difference which resulted in leaving the studs to short with not enough threads to safely mount the wheels. A shop would not have noticed this and sent the car out on the road and the wheels would have come off on the highway resulting in certain death.

I used the original drums as they have most of their meat left. This was rear brakes but also applies to most pre 1969 AMC/Rambler drums.


The original drums are 2 piece welded steel and this dimention is 1/3 the the thickness of the modern cast iron drums. Only new longer studs will solve this issue.

The total cost of the scarebird disc conversion (toyota type) $300CDN was less than rebuilding the nasty old front drums and everything is new except the hubs themselves.

Edited by maximus7001 - Jan/21/2017 at 8:08am