I’m trying to figure out if I did something dumb or if the parts just failed me. I was changing the stupid LH lug studs on my 62 Catalina front drum. I recognize that the factory did it, but I hate them. I’ve changed lugs a bunch of times, but mostly on rotors or the axle hubs on rear tires. I can’t remember if I have ever done it on a front drum rotor. Hammer em out, pull in new ones. I even have one of those little Lisle tools for install. Easy job. Well not so much this time. I hammered and hammered one one stud. Wouldn’t come out. After a while I noticed that the opposite studs were crooked. Turns out the whole inner hub came loose from the wheel. Upon closer inspection it looks like the studs do have some of their gnurled area gripping the drum and the inner hub. I ended up just hammering the other side out a bit and knocked the hub out. I did mark it so I could install in the same position. Can I just take this to a shop with a press, have them press out the studs and then install the new ones? Or even just press out the old ones and I can install the new ones.
They staked the studs on most of them. A hole saw can be used to cut the staking. And if you're just beating on the stud and the drum is all that's holding it in place, you're gonna mess it up. You need to support the hub, right around the stud, with a short piece of pipe, or a deep socket, or something.
Read Jim's second sentence very carefully, That is where your mistake is/was. You did not support the hub with somthing (piece of pipe) placed under it and around the bolt you were beating on. It's usually less stressful to use a press but you still have to support the hub with the pipe.
If you didn’t support the backside right around the stud as you beat on it, I’d pretty much guarantee that drum is junk. Very easy to bend the steel around the hub area.
I ruined some 39-41 Ford drums for the same reason; the drums are swaged around the studs and , in the case of the Ford, they make a cutter that goes over the stud and removes the swage. Sorry.
I used a 5/8ths hole saw, guess I didn’t know all the ins and outs of it, but now I get the pleasure of having a shop redrill my hubs.
Well, I’ve broken more expensive things in dumber ways. So there is that. I actually knew about the swedged thing in the back of my head. My 43 Willys is like that. I thought that went out of fashion about the time the Germans surrendered though. 100% honestly I’m usually good about looking up how to do things but I’ve changed studs a bunch of times before and didn’t even think about it. I kinda knew I might be in trouble when after 3-4 wacks the stud hadn’t budged. I had a parts car so I went and snagged a drum off that (the passenger side so I accomplished my goal of banishing those stupid LH studs) but they aren’t in as good a shape as the one I ruined. And now the parts car is down one. That disc brake conversion I mentioned in another thread is looking more appealing now. good news is I do think the wheels I have will work with them.
Am I the only one here that's stunned to hear about a '62 Pontiac using LH threaded studs and lug nuts on the driver's (LH) side? I know MoPar held on to this quirky habit until 1970 or so. But I figured Ford and GM (and probably even American Motors and Studebaker) had abandoned this practice many years prior to 1962. Were the LH front spindle nuts also LH threaded on the Pontiac or any other GM models? Any other LH threaded oddities we should be aware of?
59 rambler had them, 56 plymouth had them with studs on one end and bolts on the other, and I knew that some of the other GM divisions had LH threads for a while. I grew up working on a 67 Plymouth, so well versed in the LH thing.
I know that some big GM cars (Oldsmobile for sure) had LH studs up to 1963. I recall a buddy taking his car to a gas station to loosen them on that side... then he knew and I learned something.
I did that for my '56 Olds rear on my Willys. Als narrowed the rear by 8"! Ran welded axles for several years but finally had new axles made. Your drum is probably ok but press them out with a deep socket backup on a press instead of hammering them. I also determined what size drill bits I needed to drill press fit holes in hubs and slip fit holes in drums and bought them to have around. Look at this as an opportunity to get a Harbor Freight 12 ton hydraulic press for your shop!! Probably will cost less that having a machine shop do the deed. https://www.harborfreight.com/12-ton-shop-press-33497.html
I thought it was a jeep/Chrysler only thing before this car. But both of my 62 Pontiacs are like that. The driver car actually had both rear axles with LH threads. So 3 of the 4 wheels. The parts are only had the usual two driver side wheels with LH lugs. It’s just always a tire guy or even myself being forgetful with an impact to have a really bad day with them. So I generally try to get rid of them. I left them on the MB because I always intended to sell it.
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