The reason it did not work; the real puller holds tension by tightening, then you bash the end of the threaded part with a serious sledge hammer. It's just like seperating a ball joint taper; you hold tension, then smack to shock it. Someone mentioned that the early mopar cars had a *****y taper that is tougher than most. I think they are correct. I had a friend borrow my super heavy duty puller from the 1950s and he still could not get the drums off of his 50 Dodge 1/2 ton.
I picked my puller up from Autozone. It's the top one. http://www.autozone.com/autozone/inourstores/lat/latLanding.jsp?bodyContent=pullersSpecialized
I rented one at my local shop til one came in the back of a car I bought, they show up on Feebay regularly, around $75. Definatley buy one with the floating brackets, the fixed ones never fit right and end up pulling off center. You can borrow mine if you pay UPS there and back but I think any decent rental shop should have one, good luck.
I had the same experience with my 51 DeSoto. I started by renting a puller from the local rent-all. I tried tightening and hammering with no luck. Eventually, I twisted the long bolt in half with a breaker bar. So, I built a better version. I bought a hub puller from the local auto parts. Then I replaced the bolt with a grade 8 bolt. It's a 5/8" bolt. I couldn't find a fully threaded grade 8 long enough, so I had to make an extension to reach the right length. To remove the drum, I backed the axle nut half off the end to keep the puller bolt from slipping off. With the puller in place, I alternated tightening and pounding with the biggest hammer I had. It still took forever, but eventually it popped loose with a huge bang. One of the most frustrating things I've ever dealt with. I had soaked it with liquid wrench and kroil for a couple weeks. I'm not convinced either one did anything. Good luck.
I've done it a few times. It fits the rear drums on my 50 plymouth, so it should work on yours. One on the parts car didn't want to come loose, so I left it tensioned up over night and it popped off pretty easily the next day. It's a pain in the ***, but it'll get them off. John
jleavesl, that's a good piece of info! Leave it tensioned-up! (I ***ume you had WD-40 or creeping oil on there, too? Or did they come of DRY?)
The proper puller will be in the HAMB universe Tuesday. It's going to Ohio and from there it's anyones guess. I've had it for 30+ years and never used it so it belongs to the ages now. Jimi'shemi291 gets it first. If anyone needs it, he's the go to guy. John/Carl
Half success. I got the above puller from Kragen after an annoying wild goose chase. The right side popped off just as I thought I might break the tool. 5 minutes to do it. Drums look good, no ridge. Unfortunately the left side was not as cooperative. I basically broke the tool (ruined the threads on the bolt) and stripped one of the drum lug holes, it actually ripped itself out. Then I couldnt get the damn tool off no matter what I did and had to breaker bar out the lug nuts. SUM*****! NOW WHAT? I could actually see the lug nuts bending. I guess I'm going to try one more time, with heat this time I guess. Later after I meditate.
suprised you got one of with that weenie little chinese made thing. Watcha need is one of these; To adress your current and potential future problems, when you re***emble go modern on your stuff. Take the drum hub ***embly to a machine shop. Have then drill out the rivets and locating pin and seperate the drum from the hub. Then have them drill out the lug bolt threads and press in new modern style wheel lug studs. Then re***emble your hub to the axle. Then place the drum over the new studds and let it float like modern setups. When you tighten your wheels on the drum will be centered and retained by the lug studs. Then you won't need the puller again as the other axle components can be services by removing the four bolts visible holding the retaining plate to the backing plate.
^^^ I had to read that a couple times but I think I go it. How much would a machine shop charge for 2 rears? I'm fine with the front, for now. Nice and easy.
I DID IT!!! Oh hallelujah. I tightened it up, let it sit for a while. I put heat on it. More WD. I had to weld a brace to it to keep it from spinning. Nothing. I took my rubber mallet and, in a fit of rage, wacked the perimeter about 100 times. Just as I was about to stop... "POP!" No better sound in the world. I got to my knees and cried a little and mumbled a prayer to the car god. Now I can go on with my life. It only took ALL WEEKEND. I'll just grind it off Stripped threads and a doubly long taper thanks to me.
For future reference, as others have mentioned, you need to lube the puller threads before you start pulling. Then you cinch it down nice and tight. Then you smack the center bolt with a BFH. Sharply and right on center. Then you tighten it a bit more. Repeat until it pops. You usually cannot pull off a taper with tension alone. You need the shock, and hitting the puller center bolt parallel to the axis of the axle deforms the metal ever so slightly away from the taper. Makes all the difference.
well look at the bright side, you were smart enough to come here and ask before warping your hard to find original drum with a 3 jawed puller like some dumb *** that looks a lot like me did.
Lessons learned. For future drum removal, will it be this difficult again now that I've had them off?
I got the exact one in my shop. LOL, course I live in the Islands, and you don't. I'll send it to you, but you got to promise to return it, Iceman
I'll tell you this I did gramma's 50 S14 De Soto... stand or crawl whatever off to the side MF had a lot of preload tension and made an alarming exit from the axel. Had a bud that almost self lobotomized with drum at head height. Use the tool watch yer head and DeSoto on
Done this a couple times or more. You MUST tighten the lug bolts as if a tire were on there, that's why you bent yours at first. Second, the correct tool is the one with the dogbone, anything else and you were just lucky IMHO. Third, you smack the dogbone tight, then smack the center thread into the axle. Alternate this, and it'll come off fair easily. Also, use a very large mallet. Try with a hammer and it will know you aren't serious enough. Fourth, Yes, it will be this hard every time. Reason?? The taper, or more properly, the fit onto the taper is how the power gets to the road. Make that taper slip, or make it easier to get off (same idea), and it will slip when you hammer it, tearing up the hub, axle, key, keyway, and your day. That's IF the hub,wheel, etc. stay with the car. DO NOT LUBRICATE the axle taper. Fifth, you DO have a 3/4' drive with proper socket and at least an 850# gorilla to stand on the end of a breaker bar to tighten the nut when you're done, don't you?? As above, you do NOT want this to loosen. Oh, yeah, you tighten these with the wheel on the ground, and the appropriate bumper against a stout oak tree. Cosmo
I also have the correct tool,so I could get my 63 dodge appart( same **** that you went through). I have to say that the tool that DeSoto made to pull his is awsome.
Rubber mallet???? 3 # hand sledge is the minimum and a big orange dead blow can work also. If you choose not to do the seperate and install studs, you can just install the studs. Most machine shops charge about 3 to 5 bucks a piece plus the cost of the studs. In the future if the car is mobile, you can take the cotter key off, back the nut of 1 or 2 turns, then drive it around as many 180 degree turns as you can in the direction of the one that is loosened. You should eventually hear the same satisfying pop indicating the connection is loosened. Sounds unsafe but lots of folks have done it over the years. If you are changing the shoes and adjustment is necessary, there is a good how to on the P15 d 24 site under wip ( works in progress) ****on on the left side of the 1st page of the site. And you can make up a gaue by going to the Graham Paige site in their tech or repair section. Its a centering gauge madeout of wood, threaded rod and hardware store parts. Lets you get the shoes in an equal circular postion before you put the drum on so the rest of the adjustment is in small increments.
[QUOTE=Vorhese;4329757]Half success. I got the above puller from Kragen after an annoying wild goose chase. The right side popped off just as I thought I might break the tool. 5 minutes to do it. Drums look good, no ridge. Unfortunately the left side was not as cooperative. I basically broke the tool (ruined the threads on the bolt) and stripped one of the drum lug holes, it actually ripped itself out. Then I couldnt get the damn tool off no matter what I did [/QUOTE] That one is too small. You need the big one with the floating legs and the 2 arms that you can bash on with a 5 lb sledge. A good method is to load tension and strike a couple blows and see if it will pop off. Might take a few minutes. Repeat as necessary. Heat from a torch can sometimes help. Leave the castle nut on the end of the axle shaft to protect the threads. Loosening the nut and gently driving the car a short distance works although I've never tried that method. It's a miserable job that requires brutality and cunning.
Make your own puller. Machined adapter plate, flame cut works fine, just clean it up on the grinder. Set up to go. The cross-bar is 2" x 2" x .250 wall square tubing. Deflects only a few thousandths under heavy load. 50 Plymouth rear axle. In Use. All the accessories so you can set up for lug thread drums or lug stud drums. This puller is also set up to use an 8 ton bottle jack. The 1" bolt and nut setup pulls harder than the jack does. The big secret to getting the drums off is to apply pressure and a small amount of heat to the hub. Heat'll pop it right off and scare hell out of the spiders. 3-5 seconds of heat from an oxy-acet torch will do it, don't overheat the hub. Do not strike the axle end with a big hammer or you'll damage bearings. My pal's started calling the puller "****o". For good reason....
I'm surprised the rental did the trick at all. I've replaced the ones at work more than a few times because they're so damn weak. Gonna have to do this on the '56 soon. Would paraffin wax help the way it does on oil galley plugs? Saw the question posed but no answer.
While I've got this all dis***embled I want to pull out the axle roller bearings and repack them. Should these things just pull out? I'm having difficulty (surprise surprise) getting them to come out. Also I finally found that tool. Seems easy enough to make. http://members.shaw.ca/rjsill/tech.htm
If you look at the bottom of your axle housing just in from the backing plate you will find a hex nut or a pipe plug. To add grease to the bearing, you remove the plug and press in some grease into the hole with your thumb while rotating the axle. DO NOT insert a zerk and use a grease gun as that will blow out the seals. you might be able to get a half teas**** in if they are extreemly dry. That tool from the Graham paige site will work. measure the inner diameter of the drum and transfer the measurment less .005 in to the gauge and transfer that measurment to the gauge and set the shoes to that measurment. When you re***emble you should have very little adjustment with the minor adjusters to do. A couplee folks haf cut a small slot in the outer rim of the drum just at the contact surface. This allows you to insert a feeler gauge throught he slot and rotate the drum around so that the clearence is equal around the cir***ference of the shoes.
I can't seem to get the p***enger side rear drum off my 61 Impala. There's what appears to be a leaky wheel cylinder. I pretty much have no brake pressure now. Tried heat, lubing it, slide hammer, pounding it, hitting the center while pulling on the sides of the drum. I CANNOT get the drum off to look at it or fix the problem.
Stand aside when doing this they are pretty damn pre loaded and re ***emble with anti seize on the taper -
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