I was wanting to put longer studs into the front hubs on the Fury. After doing some research I found out that they were pressed into the drum and hub. I don't have the tools personally to do the job so I had the shop across the street do it for me. They are a small town service station and we take them all sorts of work. they are great and always treat us well. Unfortunately the 50 year old hub didn't want to give up its studs and as they began to press them out it cracked. The owner of the shop was doing the work and he felt sick that it happened. This type of thing happens with older cars, so I was upset, but not with him, just at the situation. I ended up getting a used hub from Wildcat down in Portland. It came without studs, so now I need to get some and then have them pressed in. This actually brings me to a question: Does anyone know the length of the front wheel studs for a 1964 B body? I've done some looking online, but haven't seen anything conclusive. I don't want to have to go through this again, so I would like to get it right the first time. Anyone have any suggestions?
Looks like for 10" front drums they should be 1 5/8" overall length, for 11" drums they should be 1 19/32 overall length. Finding longer studs for older cars usually isn't too hard, but on the old Plymouth you usually have to find those left hand thread studs or simply replace them with right hand. Right hand ones are everywhere, left hand only in factory length.
First off, I think his setup on the press must have been flawed. For over 30 years, we removed studs with nothing more than a brass hammer and pounded them out. It only took 2 or 3 good licks. To put the new ones back in, we used a couple of sacrificial lug nuts and an impact wrench. We would taper the front of the splines on the stud and insert it into the hole. Then place 2 greased flat washers over the stud. Start the lug nut so the flat side was against the washers and suck it on with the impact. Make sure you don't have left and right hand threads on the studs. I forget when they stopped using those. They are stamped with an R or L in the center.
It has 10inch drums, so it looks like inch amd 5/8 overall is the winner. The Fury has right hand thread on the right side of the car and left hand thread on the left side. Call me crazy, but I was wanting to keep it that way. However, I think I am going to change to standard thread at this time, just to make things easier.
I replaced mine on my 58 Coronet with 1/2" studs front and rear If you have to do work on the rear, if it's set up like mine Good luck , hubs pressed on tapered axels That almost ever give up with out breaking !!!!!
I forgot to mention that I still have the rebuilt hubs. I upgraded them to disk brakes A Scarebird setup.
I got the info on the Wheel studs that I needed. I'm going to have the machine shop put the studs into the hub and drum all at the same time and then I'll take it back to the shop across the street and have them install the new hub into the Fury. Hopefully It will be back on the road by next week.
The "new" hub came in the mail and I ordered the studs and drum. They are supposed to be in tomorrow morning. I'll pick them up and assemble everything this weekend and then take it to the shop Monday. Hopefully everything goes smoothly and I'll have the car back next week. The weather has been getting nicer and I'm itching to go cruising.
This^^. No excuse for it, sloppy work. The hub wasn't supported correctly, period. Pulling them in with an impact also runs the risk of deforming(stretching) the stud, depending on how tight they are. Press 'em in is best but I admit to drawing them in by the threads myself.
Got everything put back together and the shop that did the work made it right for me. In the end, I basically achieved what I was wanting, to be able to drive the Fury without worrying that one of the tires would come off. I'll snap some pictures tomorrow if I remember.
Good news - things happen when working on our old cars. It's just nice to know you have it back together and can get out and play again.
That's the right way to do it. You have to pull the drum from the tapered axle, and you do no use a slide hammer to remove the axle either, there is a puller for that too. In the factory service manual there is a warning in big bold print that a slide hammer will do damage. We got new drums for the 60 Savoy, but we want to get new hubs for fear of this happening when we try to separate the drum and hub after 50+ years.
Been cruising for a while now that everything is put back together. It all works like it is supposed to. I even added a set of Mr. Gasket chrome grease caps to clean up the appearance of the wheels. Here is the new front hub with new drum and new grease cap:
