Flathead Ford Brake Drum Removal with KRW tool

I was knocking apart a pre 48 Ford banjo rear end today and thought that I would contribute a little tech on how to remove brake drums using the correct KRW hub removal tool. So here it goes.

If you are fooling with a flathead rearend the exasperating part is to figure out how to get the rear drums off. Naturally there is a tool for most all jobs and KRW tool company made a lot of specialty tools for old Fords so here is my take on how to use one. In this case on a 1937 ford rear end but the procedure is good for any year with taper axles.

This is the correct KRW hub tool. It is repoped today and available at most Vintage Ford parts stores.

The first steps in hub removal is to naturally remove the cotter key and the axle nut. The second step is to try to release any brake shoe drag that might be built up from rust, leaky grease or stuck wheel cylinders. If you have a unit with mechanical or hydraulic brakes brakes this means back off the cam adjustment anchors as far as you can. If the hub rotates freely you are ahead of the game.

If the hubs are stuck on the brake shoes with mechanical brakes you can get some additional clearance by loosing the brake shoe retainer bolts. With hydraulic brakes remove the bolts that hold on the wheel cylinder. This should give additional clearance so the shoes don't drag on the drums.

The hub puller is then installed to grip the hub snout. There is a thread protector nut that goes on the end of the axle shaft to prevent damage. Most pullers found a swap meets don't have this nut but you can use a regular nut if you don't have one. The retaining ring tapes tightly in place to form a circular clamp.

The hub puller is then tightened with a wrench as tightly as possible. In some cases you may feel the hub separate from the axle taper or in other instances you may have to shock the puller with a hammer blow. This should pop the taper bond.

Usually this will not come off in one pull due to the drag of the brake shoes. So simply remove the tool and re adjust the pull by taking the axle protector nut flipping it so the solid end buts the end of the axle and re assemble the puller and repeat the operation.

As the drum starts to draw off the brake shoes it is some times necessary to take a screw driver and pry around to find the low point of the shoes. Do not hit the drums with a hammer as this may crack the drum. Once the shoe have relaxed the drum pops right off.

One of the reasons drums stick to the shoes is that the shoes actually wear a groove inward on the drum about 3/16" from the edge and this builds up a rust ring. If you are having drums turned or installing new drums do yourself a maintenance favor and bevel the outer edge of the drum brake surface at a 30* angle about 3/16" wide around the edge. This will make the next brake service a lot easier.

If you can get one of these KRW pullers the next best puller is one that draws off the studs but you cannot apply a lot of pressure with these as they can distort the hub surface.. Avoid using large 3 finger puller as these can easily warp the drum.

Good luck that my story for now

 

Great thread!

 

If you have a puller without the axle protector nut (really necessary on any puller that bears on axle) buy a cheap new "knocker" or "bingo" puller, like $5 at resto parts places, and shorten it a bit. Also fits Ford steering column, spring perches.
And reread about 3-arm pullers...I have actually split a Model A drum with one of these!
For Fords, the people who made those pullers supplied an adaptor that fit into the hub groove so two arms could pull from there.

 

Thanks.

 

Nice tech article, I like the tip about beveling the drum. Thanks!

 

Thanks Mr. S.
Next time can you show us how to remove a stubborn early ford steering wheel?

 

My learnings on that, written in blood...
Whatever puller you are using will bear against the shaft. If lots of force is needed, you can pretty easily split the shaft or compress it, ruining the threads. Minimum precaution is leaving the nut on, turned to top of threads, and dropping a bolt into the hole as pressure point so puller ram can't try to expand the hole...it helps to drill a shallow dent into bolt head as a center for puller. Again, a $5 knocker from a Model A place, 5/8-16 or is it 18, can be made into a nice support; just shorten a bit.
Next...pre 1940 or 1940 and up?? The latter category is drilled and tapped for modern puller. Before I found an early style puller I successfully drilled&tapped some earlies for pullers...most important is using a stop so you don't drill out the bottom. I drill one drill size smaller than correct for 5/16 threads to get some depth in the hard rubber to supplement the thin piece of steel in there...
Now I have a suitable tool. I just heard a good old-time trick: Use the outer shell, obviously the split kind, from a '28-48 U-joint. This (stuffed with a rag for padding) cups the bottom of the wheel and allows use of several types of 2 and 3 arm pullers. Never tried it, but seems like it would work. I know people who have used bearing splitters beneath wheel as a grip point for puller...again padding carefully would be necessary.

 

Thanks

 

Dick, THANK YOU for an excellent tech post. Photos make all the difference.

 

another thing is, be careful shocking the axle, you might do damage inside the differential, so don,t get a 6 pound hammer and wail away on it. [not that I ever did.] [also applies to steering gears].

 

this is the puller tool a club member had made up for us

 

Very good tech piece Dick. I have used the pullers that bolt to three of the wheel studs and has a threaded shaft that presses against the axle and a dogbone handle with enough surface area to whack with a hammer. Which is the better tool, the one that encloses the hub snout or the one like i described? I have not used the one as you described and the one i have used is a pia and i have to wail the hell out of it to break things loose.
Thanks, oj

 

The three-leggers in my opinion are too wide on a Ford pattern. They can actually bend the hub on a really bad pull. On the very worst Ford hub pull I ever did, on a really crummy Model A rear, the distortion from a 3-legger was enough to actually SPLIT the brake drum! I am pretty sure that every dog within 5 miles jumped 5 feet into the air at the sound that made, and then jumped again a bit later when the %&$# hub finally let go of its axle...
The grip is normally entirely from the taper, too...on that A rear, even though innards were nice, all outer and brake parts were too pitted to be wortjh saving after years outdoors, but the inside of hub and axle end were spotless and perfect.
The axle end protector is vital unless the thing was too loose to start with, and even with the best puller (KRW) the pull on a really tight one reaches SCARY befor release.

 

After a frustrating search to locate one, I found a reproduction of the KRW hub puller @ Vintage Precision Inc. It's made with tougher, newer tech materials. http://www.vintageprecision.com/products/hub_pullers/
Hope this helps someone looking for one like I was...

 

Thank you for this. I'm going to order one of these.

 

Wish I would have read this about a year ago, before the month of Saturdays I spent swearing, crying, trying to reason, bargaining, praying to any deity. Before I bought the correct tool.

I live in UK so the tool took a while to get here. But made the job pain free in the end

 

After asking the question ages ago I went out and bought the KRW tool from Winfield Tool Works. The Vintage Precision looks ok but try to find one from Winfield, it is the exact tool that KRW made and mine came in a wooden Ford box.

 

Winfield Tool Works is your friend.
They have a lot of PULL .The torque wrench shown is broken and
has been welded to make it a breaker bar.

 

Or.....if you don't want to spend the close to $200 for the Winfield tool, we keep a couple around available to rent. We make it easy by sending it out UPS in a reusable carton and include a return shipping label. Use it, repack it, slap the return label on, and hand it to UPS.
http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/FH_images/Chassis parts pics/brakedrum-pullertool.jpg

 

good thread - sometimes when the hubs have been down in the dirt - or a little under water like mine - this is what I did - this is when the brake shoes have "welded" themselves to the drum...it happens...
take screws out of wheel cylinder - then take the nuts off the two bottom shoe holders -
since I didn't have a puller - I used some really great Harbor Freight pry bars along with some of my larger broken screw drivers....the victim was a late 30's 3/4 ton truck chassie....think 1939...

 

DOE!!! I just bought one... oh well, you can never have too many tools!

 

Are those fronts? Looks like it. I'm pretty confident that method wouldn't work on the rears which were what my issue involved. Those tapered axles can be a real challenge! just sayin'...

 

Update: The puller I bought from Vintage Precision works like a charm! Practically effortless to use... It's one of those tools where you don't need it often, but when you do it's indispensable!!

 

This is Kevin and i am working on a 1934 ford BB dump truck and am trying to remove rear drums . I have removed rear axle and rear axle bearing nut. I have put a puller on it but has nut budged . Is there anyone out there that can HELP me please. Thanks KEV

 

If you only removed one nut as you have written, you need to remove the washer that was under it followed by the inner nut. Should move around then and you can get the the outer bearing to slide out. Then you just have to deal with pulling the hub and drum off the brake shoes.

 

Did you back off the brake shoes? Depending on how long they've sat they might be bonded tot he drum.

 

Even though Dick Spadoro is no longer with us, his knowledge will live on.

 

Here's my 2 cents. I purchased a tool from Vintage Precision Incorporated. Unfortunately for me the threads on the axle end were stripped. Therefore, I had to improvise with various spacers to put pressure on the axle. ( Smart money would have addressed the thread repair first.)After destroying part of the tool. I finally got the hub off. The problem was the brake shoes would not slide inside the drum. Fluid had leaked out of wheel cylinder. The drum did not come off until there was way over an 1 1/2 inch gap between the drum and the backing plate. My hat is off to most of the real mechanics posting here and I thank every one of them for their advice.The car is a 1935 w/ 1939 brakes.

 

On '39-'41 brakes; if you unbolt the wheel cylinder and remove the nuts from the lower anchors and tap the anchor bolts inward; the shoes will come with the drums and you can pull them pretty easily, the shoe retainers bend (but are easy to straighten later) and there is enough slack in the e-brake cable.

'42-'48 not so easy.

 

Thanks for the reply.Any idea on how to fix the axle threads ? All the outer portion of axle/spindle threads are stripped. I've read that the castle nut could be out of round ( and replaced with an inferior available repop)or the end can be re-threaded to 9/16-18 thread with no significant loss of strength. It has been suggested that ordinary dies will not cut the axle steel. Getting a die to thread straight without having it jigged up is difficult.That makes a replacement in order.How hard is it to change an axle ?Yes, it's true, I'm in over my head.