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Hello Packard Info Crew,

Doing the brakes and seals all around on my 2272 and am stumped by the driver's side rear axle. The drum seems to slide in on the taper farther than it should and rubs against the brake backing plate once the axle nut is tightened. I swapped drums, same result. At first I thought I might want to remove the shim between the backing plate and the axle housing but now I'm looking at the threaded tip of the axles.

The 2nd pic shows how I'm not even able to snug the drum past the shoulder at the base of the threaded section. I added a few bushings to get around this, got a nice mate to the axle, but ran right into the backing plate. Anyone ever run into this problem? I'm tempted to try to track down another axle but thought I'd check in with the collective wisdom here before I make any more moves.

Thanks, Michal

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Michael: This is strange. You say the passenger side drum has the same problem. Does the driver side brake drum fit on the passenger side axle as it should? If so, I would say you have a bad driver side axle. What was it like before you took it apart? How tight were the axle nuts? How does the key fit in the groove? What does the tapered part of the axle look like? More photos would help.

(o{I}o)

Since there are junior and senior axles and drums, could those be mixed in such a way that maybe a senior hub could be installed and be large enough to slide up the axle? I would think there should be something noticeable like wheel bolts or something else that would prevent that but maybe not. Are the drums the same width or depth?

Michal, I would suggest measuring the respective axle dimensions and hub dimensions with a caliper to isolate and identify what is out of tolerance or as HH56 mentioned a mix of parts. It appears that if these parts were always mated together this condition would have certainly existed before disassembly. Was it like this before disassembly?

Okay Guys, thanks for the great advice. I just pulled the drums and swapped them and the fit of the opposite drum IS much better. I verified the numbers cast in each drum and they're the same alright. The square pins and their slots look fine all around.

Then I took a mic to the outsides of the axle bores on each drum's hub and, sure enough, a noticeable difference. I'll look further in the morning when there's light but it seems to me I have a too-worn drum. Not sure how one would pull this off... maybe running a while with the hub loose or no pin installed. I'd expect you wouldn't be able to move the car but I guess it's possible?

Learned a lesson here to check thoroughly and not make assumptions. I had this bum drum turned and heli-coiled a stripped lug bolt hole; got a little over-confident there.

So... anyone have a recommendation on tracking down a rear brake drum? (Casting #32344-R)

Thanks, Michal

Another quick question: torque spec for the axle nut?

I couldn't find it in the manual but might have missed it in a chart somewhere. I know the bulk of the stiction between the axle and drum is along the tapered surface but those nuts are what make that stick possible.

Torque 200-270 in 51 manual. Same axle used so would imagine same numbers can be applied.

Don't see how the bore could get that worn without having the axle in pretty bad shape as well.

Well the more I roll this over, the more I realize what I missed...

Upon disassembling the troubled drum, I did notice the axle nut was acting on a pair of stacked washers that had been carefully welded. I see now that this was an attempt to "tighten up" the drum on the axle at some point and this should have been my first clue to look further. I'm guessing to me the drum seemed firmly connected up in the air but actually had some play when in action on the road that had been ovaling the hub over time with only the square key transferring rotation.

Another clue was a munched outer seal that I now see was getting beat up by the tip of the hub reaching deeper inward than in should have. This explains why that side was pretty soaked with 90wt. (Gotta make sure I don't forget to top up the diff when everything's buttoned up. What's the favorite gear oil to use in the rear end?)

I have a replacement hub in the works thanks to a member here so I expect to be rolling & stopping in no time. Thanks again to this group and to my buddy, Jimmy, for his jumbo drum puller! I've put that beastie into action much more than expected.

Michal

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Just a final update to wrap this thread: I tracked down a decent used drum, slipped it on the axle, and it tightened up as expected. So, looks like my original drum had a worn hub center after all. I still need to top up the gear oil and button up a few more things before going out for a proper test drive but it's looking good.

Thanks again to everyone's help. Now it's on to the next item to be sorted so I'm sure I'll be posting again soon... probably regarding the R9 OD control unit.

Happy New Year PackardInfo, Michal

Thanks Michal for coming back and letting us know the final resolution to your problem. Let us know of your continuing progress of keeping another Packard on the road.