Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

That's what I thought too and wasn't sure when Dana came into play so I thought maybe he had already opened it up. If it's a gasket, Olson's Gaskets has them. They even had one for my Henney-Packard and they are very fast with shipping. Tell Richard Olson that I sent you!

With respect to our difficulty of removing rear axle hubs:

The tire kicking wisdom among the Brand X crowd is to loosen the axle nut to next to nothing and drive the car around the block. The claim is the hub will loosen during the short drive. The Brand X rear axle design is quite similar, that is tapered & keyed, albeit a much smaller in size when compared to Packard size(s).

I bought a ‘rubber’ elbow from Home Depot’s plumbing department. The plan is/was to clamp the elbow onto/around the hub and fill with penetrating oil up to the height of the axle . . . square key ‘up’ just in-case there’s a direct path for the fluid. I haven’t tried it yet, but will in the future. My plan was to try the penetrating oil trick many hours before the barbarism of the hub puller. Once wetted with oil some care would be needed if ‘open flame’ heat is subsequently applied. Perhaps the process should be wet, wait, and then drive around the block (nut reinstalled with minimum torque) before the puller is used.

I suspect we have all been influenced by our professional experiences . . . a fraction of my experience was to avoid anything that could Brinell a bearing. Since most of the force generated by the hammer blow is ultimately reacted at the bearing Brinelling damage a distinct possibility. I suspect the useful life to the bearing would be reduced, but after 75 years no one would ever know, or likely care, if a bearing failure is premature. In work we were especially obsessed with bearing damage during transportation of our product, and would frequently remind each other how the ‘metal never forgets’ . . . even in the back of a truck on the way to a New York airport . . . those roads being noted for ‘pot holes’ the size of national parks.

From a bearing durability stand-point a hub puller that had a provision for a hex socket that would be used with a modern impact wrench, in my mind, would be superior to the ‘hammer only’ puller design, especially if the current bearings are intended to be packed and reused.

dp

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1953-55 uses a square cross section o-ring that sits inside a groove in the carrier, previous years used a gasket

Not sure that Brinelling is possible when using a puller correctly. You never pound on the end of the drive screw so that force is purely from the pressure exerted by driving the "handle" in a rotary motion.

My own puller has seen a lot of use ver the years as all three of my 1964 Imperials needed it too in addition to many Packards. My 1965 Imperial leBaron and my four 1965 Cadillacs did not need it as by then they all had the flange-type axle that Packard switched over to for 1956.

I've never had to use heat to get the drums off. Just beat on dog bone portion of the puller like it owes you money. This both tightens the screw and also shocks everything. If it's not working, get a bigger hammer.

If they have been on a long time, it will take more force then you expect.

This is where cheap pullers can fail before the drum let's go.

But you really need to make sure the brake shoes are retracted so your not fighting that as well.

Thanks will definitely loosen up the brake shoes first.

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I beat on the '52 for over an hour until my arm was sore. Heat was the only thing that ended up working for me. But I didn't have that problem on my dad's '38, and my '54 came off without too much of a fight. Corrosion maybe?

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Can you believe that on a car THIS RUSTY that this is all it took to get it off? Me neither. An impact gun that barely has enough torque to cinch up lug bolts properly.

Hard to complain about something being easy for once, though!!!

Though I'm sure the reason is someone messing with it long ago and not putting it back properly.

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Didn't have a slide puller. This worked perfectly.

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That's actually scary. That axle nut should have been torqued to around 225ft/lbs.