not sure what you mean, the backing plate for the drum mounts to the spindel and the finned cover slides over all that... hope this helps
Hey!! Do you mean on the outside of the hub(hub being on the inside,buick hubs are on the outside) yes!! Pete
Yes, that is what I meant. I thought that I have seen it done that way in the past, but when I searched on the HAMB, everybody was talking about putting the hub on the outside of the drum. Is there anything that needs to be done differently when installing the drum on the outside of the hub? I know when you put them spindle/drum/hub, you need to machine the inside of the drum to clear the Ford backing plate, but how much does that change when placing it spindle/hub/drum? r
Hey!! I've seen it both ways! I don,t know what has to be done differently!(not much help to ya) I'll try to find the post or where I read it! Pete
The only easy way is to use the46-8 hubs and mount the drum on the inside of the hub. The drum has a cone shaped center and they do not have a big enough mounting area to support the 5 1/2 Ford bolt pattern wheels. The Buick wheels barely fit. Using the outside mount also moves the drum out so the braking drum surface overhangs the shoes a bunch. I have looked at rigs like this and you can look down past the backing plate and see the shoes. Great engineering.
you can use the Buick drum AND hub...get the bearing adapters and all you need to do is undercut the inside lip of the drum to clear the backing plate. Any place with a brake lathe can do it. Simple. I put Buick drums on my model-A that way. Alot easier than messin' with changing the hubs.
OK, but can I use my 40 Ford backing plates with my square back spindles and put the drum over the hub? r
Please see post #6. the Buick drums do not have a large enough mounting surface for Ford wheels. You have to turn the '40 hub mounting surface diameter down so it will fit inside the Buick drums. The '40 hubs are a very poor choice unless you are using the late Ford wheel pattern.
No! You can't put the Buick Aluminum drums over the '40-'41 style Ford hubs if you use the Ford Lockheed ('39-'48 Ford backing plates). You must use the '46-'48 style Ford hub due to the offset distance of the mounting surface of the flange on the hub. The Walden aluminum aftermarket style hubs or the nodular iron hubs from Wilson Welding will also work...
Yes, pre 46 hubs have a mating surface on the outside as they mount to the inside of the drum. 46-48 hubs have the mating surface on the inside as they mate to the outside of the drum. Check this photo. Hub on the left is 46-48 and on the right is pre 46. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1945193&d=1369754499
Go to the HAMB Tech Archive. There is a compilation of all the Buick drum threads, thanks to Flat Ernie.
We did our Buick drum conversion with the hubs on the inside of the drum, and I agree the Buick drum does not have the material on them to support running the wheels. We made a wheel spacer to run on the outside of the drum to support the rim(there aren't any on the market that are made with the dia. needed if you go looking for them). We didn't end up with drum overhanging the shoes to a point where you can look down past the backing plate and see the shoes, we did get a small overhang but from what I read on the HAMB, it was about same the amount as people were saying they had to trim off the drum to clear the backing plate. What I like about the way we did it, we can pull the drums without removing the hub and the spacers moved the steel wheels over just a bit which shows off the finned drums a bit more. Been very happy with how our conversion came out. We are running the 90 fin drums though, does that make the difference?
I would do this, but I would have to factor in re-drilling the drums and hubs for the '40 Ford wheel. (I have the adapters somewhere in the barn...) r
" We made a wheel spacer to run on the outside of the drum to support the rim(there aren't any on the market that are made with the dia. needed if you go looking for them)." Ok, do you have pictures of your support? r
No, I didn't think about taking photos by then, guess I was to excited about getting the project done...... I will try to remember to do that over the weekend
Sorry it took me so long. I finally had the wheel off the car this weekend. We have a large nail and a very flat tire to thank for that..... But here are the spacers we made up. If I remember the dia correctly, they are 8" by 5/8. You can see where the nubs are hitting on the spacer, without them, the rim would be trying to run on the buick drum, which has no meat there to support those rims. Cheers RustyNCA
I like what you did with the spacers. Would they have to be 5/8", or is that what was handy? The further you space them out, your scrub radius increases. If I make some, I was going to use 3/8-7/16 6061 plate.
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