Brake Drums

[Roger W Gerow]

Plan to order a set of rear brake drums for my '40 Tudor. Who offers the best quality of material.? Or is there only one manufacturer of them? any help or suggestions appreciated.

[Lawson Cox]

i would try to find good originals that still have some meat on them. my 2¢

[Bassman/NZ]

Originally Posted by Lawson Cox

i would try to find good originals that still have some meat on them. my 2¢

Yep, Henry made the best ones.

[paints4me2]

got a pair of rear drums from Joblot Automotive , P.O. Box 75 , Queens Village , N.Y. 11429 .....(800) 221-0172 or www.joblotauto.com. nice quality and he carries the studs. he's been around for a while bought stuff from him as far back as 1970. Ralph

[36 flathead]

Same here. Joblot. Very happy with there brake drums

[Vergil]

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Ditto JobLot

Vergil

[PeteVS]

Richard Lacy of Early V8 Garage posts on the Barn and he sells the new "made in USA" drums. They come very highly recommended. They require new studs (he's got them too) and a little bit of re-drilling the holes in the hubs. They're extra thick so you should be able to get an extra turning out of them if need be.

[Roger W Gerow]

Thanks everyone, really appreciate it.

[Richard (EV8G)]

Originally Posted by PeteVS

Richard Lacy of Early V8 Garage posts on the Barn and he sells the new "made in USA" drums. They come very highly recommended. They require new studs (he's got them too) and a little bit of re-drilling the holes in the hubs. They're extra thick so you should be able to get an extra turning out of them if need be.

Pete: Thanks again for your post. The new USA drums are the style that mount on the OUTSIDE of the hub flange, and indicate on them a maximum diameter of 12.090" as compared to 12.060" for typical Ford drums (big argument about that limit...) so they ARE extra thick as you say, which is a good thing even if they never need to be machined again... They can be mounted on original Ford hubs or new USA hubs, front or rear. The installation results in the drums being a "slip on/off" fit like modern drums, so it is NOT necessary to remove the hub/drum to service the brakes, only the drum.

For those with the INSIDE mounted hubs/drums, the only new drums available are made in South America. In the distant past, the foreign made drums suffered from a severely uneven casting, with the result that even though the inside shoe surface was concentric with the hub center, the outside casting was eccentric and the drum was WAY out of balance. Accordingly, I have never sold the foreign-made drums. During the past week, a customer brought me to be machined a pair of rear Ford hubs with what appeared to be new foreign-made drums mounted on the inside of the hub flange with the studs swaged in place. This style of hub-drum CAN have the studs swaged because the swage goes against the hub flange exterior and not against the cast iron drum. The drums are entirely of cast iron, so the centers are thicker; so the studs must have been longer than the originals? One of the hub flanges was severely bent and the drum was whopper-jawed when spun on my drum lathe, like severe lateral run-out AND up/down eccentricity. The other hub was not bent, but the exterior of the drum was still eccentric, leading me to suspect that the uneven casting problem may still persist - or these drums, although purchased recently, were of the "old stock" ??? Don't know for sure, but the customer was not very happy with his new "elsewhere" purchase... The bent hub was probably the result of improper stud removal procedure... like someone just "hammered" or pressed them out, without regard for proper support during and/or they did not remove the swage. With the inside-mounted drums, the swage cannot be cut without damaging the hub flange face, so it is necessary to drill the heads and push the old studs out from the inside...

There are certain procedures and precautions involved in removal of old drums and studs and mounting any new drum of the all-cast-iron replacement type with regard to correct studs and stud length, NOT swaging studs against the cast iron, which can create pressure that can eventually, if not immediately, lead to drum cracking. We either do the work for the customer OR provide proper instructions if the customer will do the work themselves or have it done by a local-to-them shop. Because the early Ford hubs/drums/studs are unlike any modern design, especially the rears, most current/modern shops are unfamiliar with how to correctly work on them, frequently resulting in something getting ruined in the process and/or unsatisfactory results...