Technical 53-54 Chevy Front Brake Drum Removal

I'm getting ready to do the brakes on my T which has the chevy spindle with 53-54 chevy drum brakes. I thought it's a good time to grind the rivits so I can separate drum from hub so I don't have to remove the whole assembly off the spindle to just do a brake job.
Initially I ran a pick around the hub drum intersection area and couldn't locate a lip to the drum, making me think it was one piece, but it shouldn't be.



I went ahead and ground the 3 rivits down



And commenced to beating the shit out of the drum to pop it loose, destroying several pieces of wood in the process



Next I sprayed it with BP Blaster, hit it with my purse, cursed it, heated the area around the hub, hammer tapped around the drum near the hub and on the brake surface area, but it's stuck like lockjaw.
It looks like it's loose around the rivits but the hub area looks the same and I still can't feel a lip for the drum around the hub.
I sprayed it down with BP Blaster again and called it a night. There's no way that's one piece to the hub right ???

 

I would get the rivits completely out. Drill into it on center, slightly smaller diameter than the rivit, not all the way thru, leave some meat in the bottom for a punch to hit.

 

I can't imagine why you would want to do it that way. All the factory manuals say to remove the complete assembly as a one piece unit. It isn't like you have to remove it once a month. You still have to remove the entire unit to pack the bearings so it seems like you are making a lot of work for no reward. Plus if you ever have to turn the drums it is a lot easier to get a true cut as an assembly.

 

Those wheel bearings have to be packed at a maximum of every 10 K and I highly reccomend doing it more often than that on ball bearing wheel bearings. Plus you just spent more time screwing with those rivets than it would have taken to remove the wheel and do it right.

Yep, the front wheel bearings have to be repacked especially with every brake job. It makes no sense to remove the drums from the hubs at all unless you are replacing the drums. I can see knocking down th rivet heads if you have custom wheels that need to sit flat on the face of the drum that is a given.

 

That reminds me of my buddy that saw me pull a front drum off a Chev that had already been replaced - just slipped it off the hub. A while later, he's doing the fronts on a '60s Plymouth, & "can't get the dam drum off"... he'd been beating on it half a day. ruined the drum & bent hell out of the backing plate prying ... I tapped the dust cover off, pulled the cotter key & spun the nut off with my fingers ...

 

They are also swedged around the studs.

 

I've removed the drums before to convert to disc brakes, and save the hubs. It's always a major hassle, and I always drill out the rivets after grinding them flush. I spray around the hub junction, but also around the studs too. I then put the assembly in my 12 ton press and put pressure on the hub and give the drum some hits with a hammer. With pressure and some jarring they always pop loose. Without they might never pop loose after all these decades.

 

DOGPILE!!!

Part reason why the snout is so long is because of the ball bearing wheel bearing design, it needs TLC, it likes fresh grease. It won't forgive you like a tapered roller bearing.

When drums are riveted onto hubs, not only does the cooling of the rivet clamp the two pieces together, the rivet itself deforms to conform to the holes in both hub and drum creating an interference fit. Unless the rivet is clear there will still be an interference fit of all three components.

Then there is the 70+ years of thermal expansion/contraction around the stud and register bores. Plus the crud and corrosion that has gotten between all those mating surfaces, those two pieces are not going to come apart with any ease.

IIRC snout and studs are also slightly swedged to drum.

 

Hmm dont really se the problem here..... remove the pin, nut and the drum, when its time to do a brakejob, theres also time for a bearing lubrication and adjusting....or am I missing something here?

 

Future drum replacement would be the need to separate.

 

Never got it to break loose so I did it the old fashion way.
For those wondering and can't phantom doing something a different way than the manual says to do it, like some crotchity corvette restorer.
You know damn well it's easier to set wheel bearing and brake drag separately and before you start posting how easy it is.... I will invite you over so you can do it and I can stand over your shoulder criticizing your every move.

For those actually answering my question..... Thank you