rear drum issues and the problems that followed

[kuebelwagen84]

When I bought my '73 I was told that there might be a problem with one of the rear drums, the guy didn't know which one it was, and I assumed he was just talking about the brakes/stopping and what not... Having had the car towed to my house and after driving it around a few miles to get a feel for the car and see how the car handled, I couldn't find anything wrong with it and just figured I'd bleed the brake lines a little more and maybe just replace the rear drums altogether at a later date

Last week I was driving the car around for about 2 minutes before I heard a banging (I actually thought I was dragging something), so I pulled over and just as I reached the curb my driver's side rear wheel fell off (no observable damage except to my rear fender which I was going to replace anyway and what would seem to be my next problem I'll get into later)... turns out the bores in the rear drum are stripped, I've read another post about this happening to someone else's drums when I did a search

So I ordered the new drums and am trying to replace them but I can't seem to get the axle nuts to budge... I've PB blasted them, used cheater bars, nothing seems to help... I did order a Torque Dude so hopefully that'll fix the problem - if not I'm gonna try heating it with a torch or as a last resort cutting them off

so that's problem 1, anyone have any advice or do you think the torque dude will take care of it?

problem 2 scares me a bit more... it seems sometime between the wheel falling off and me getting 3 bolts to hold it in while I drove back home, the passenger side rear wheel is no longer sitting straight... As I can't get the drums off and inspect just yet I can only wonder as to what is causing this to happen...

What I think it might be is that the axle stub was bent in the fall, but as I said, until I can get the drums off I can't be certain... does anyone have any ideas about this and how hard is it to find new stubs?

any help would be appreciated, the weather finally got nice in NJ and I'm dying to get this car back on the road

[kubelmann]

Step by step

When you say a chater bar how long is it?


Those nuts are at near 300 ft/lbs I have a unique tool for this. I use the factory lug nut handle from my 38 Ford 1 1/2 ton flat bed. It turns out that the lugs are 1.5" which relates nicely to 36 mm (actually 36 mm = 1.41")

The lug nut wrench has a hole that my 5' tank track breaking bar fits through so I put it on the nut and it comes loose every time for 30 years. Never fails. I have not heard ot the tool you ordered, But I would try my best to avoid cutting a stub axle. That is a bad idea. They are not cheap. Heat is a good idea. If it was me and I could not get the nut loose, I would break the nut in half with a chisel or use my diamond grinder and score the daylights out of it and then crack it with a chisel. The good new is that the nut is much softer than the stub. If it very stuck then it is probably rusted badly which should have compromised its strength making it easy to split.

[kuebelwagen84]

the cheater bar was probably about 3.5', I know the nuts are torqued to about 237 ft/lbs according to the shop manual and supposedly this torque dude is essentially a torque multiplier (the online description said it multiplies whatever you set a torque wrench to by 10; i.e set the torque wrench to 23ft/lbs and then you have 230 ft/lbs)... I have a 36mm driver head that I was using with the cheater bar/breaker bar combo but from what I hear this tool comes with a 36mm head regardless

if I still can't get the nut loose I'll try splitting it as you said or cutting it from the stub, but only as a last resort after heat... the tracking says it'll come on the 2nd

btw, it doesn't appear to be rusted onto the axle, do you think it might be possible to rust onto the drum itself?

any suggestions on the latter issue?

[kubelmann]

Bending Thing stub axle with a stock engine and trans would be a good feat. If the stub is bent I bet the diagonal arm is hosed as well. If I had a bent stub, I would toss the diagonal arm. Wasted theads in the drum are not uncommon. That is why all my VWs have 14 mm x 1.5 mm studs (Porsche style) For the record I HATE drum brakes. When I get a new VW the first thing I do is go for a disc conversion.
Check out my web page on the subject.

http://veewiki.com/K-mann_4_wheel_brake_conversion?highlight=%28CategoryThing%29

I suspect you have more sour parts than you have thought of in this issue. After you replace all those parts you will still have a crappy out of date 30 year old braking system that is a pain to maintain and does not stop very well.

[charter]

If the wheel does not sit straight up and down I would check for bearing damage. I don't think you could bend the stub with a stock engine and on road driving

[kuebelwagen84]

[kuebelwagen84]

[Al Capulco]

The Torque Dude is a great tool. It is by far the best tool for removing that 36m nut. I have used mine several times and it has never let me down. It is not as good as the original tool but it still works great. Most people don't like to spend 60 bucks for a tool that you don't use very often, but I think it is worth every penny.

[kuebelwagen84]