Hub/Brake Drum puller/installer

[MyothersanM1]

I took one of my old 20" rims and made a hub/brake drum puller/installer jig that adapts to my floor jack.

I cut the rim in half and removed some of the rim lip as to not interfere with the jack. I drilled a 7/8" hole at the bottom center of the rim half. I removed the jack's lifting plate and attached the jig using a 3/4" bolt, nut and flat washer leaving it a little loose so the jig can rotate and have a little up and down movement.

It worked like a charm. No aching back here!! I just it ran up against the hub/drum, snugged up several lug nuts and pulled the hub/drum straight off. If you set some 2X4's on the ground you can rotate the jack up 90 degrees and remove the hub/drum setting it on the blocks. Then you can go grab the next one.

Installation was just as easy. I used a bottle jack to get the axle at that sweet spot for optimum installation. The hub/drum slipped on the spindle with little coaxing.

 

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Similar to the dolly we had at one of my old jobs, although this one was far more expensive (think around $400-500 bucks is what the boss said).

 

[MyothersanM1]

Similar to the dolly we had at one of my old jobs, although this one was far more expensive (think around $400-500 bucks is what the boss said).


View attachment 711115

I saw those a while back. They’re pretty slick! Expensive though! I do wonder if they would work with the rear hub/drum assembly? It seems that this dolly is design for the outboard style brake drum only.

 

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I agree the commercial one is meant for outboard drums. Would have to redesign the 'clamp' assembly to pick up a inboard drum/hub assembly in a balanced way.

 

[MyothersanM1]

I agree the commercial one is meant for outboard drums. Would have to redesign the 'clamp' assembly to pick up a inboard drum/hub assembly in a balanced way.

Maybe a clamp/retainer that would hook under a lug nut or slip over a stud then a lug nut installed??

 

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Maybe, but that's not quite the balance point. The beauty of the commercial one is that the drum is balanced no matter how high/low it's lifted off the ground, so it slides on easily.

I think with 2 bands tied together it would work. 1 band to clamp the drum, the other to clamp the hub, and a pivot at the balance point that ties them together.


When I lift the drum/hubs to install on my wrecker and others cargo trucks I use a come along attached to a wheel stud to lift it and the drum side is a bit heavier.

 

[74M35A2]

I took one of my old 20" rims and made a hub/brake drum puller/installer jig that adapts to my floor jack.

I cut the rim in half and removed some of the rim lip as to not interfere with the jack. I drilled a 7/8" hole at the bottom center of the rim half. I removed the jack's lifting plate and attached the jig using a 3/4" bolt, nut and flat washer leaving it a little loose so the jig can rotate and have a little up and down movement.

It worked like a charm. No aching back here!! I just it ran up against the hub/drum, snugged up several lug nuts and pulled the hub/drum straight off. If you set some 2X4's on the ground you can rotate the jack up 90 degrees and remove the hub/drum setting it on the blocks. Then you can go grab the next one.

Installation was just as easy. I used a bottle jack to get the axle at that sweet spot for optimum installation. The hub/drum slipped on the spindle with little coaxing.

View attachment 711114View attachment 711113View attachment 711112

Genius. I've been looking for a way to slide the hubs straight on and off my a2 to prevent the inner CTIS seals from getting knarfed, cocked or torn. I have not done any hub/bearing maintenance specifically because of this reason since owing the truck, and I mostly work alone, so not sure if the drum would separate from the hub willingly, and if not, can I myself slide it on and off by myself without dragging it across the spindle and threads. Saw and liked the idea of putting masking tape over the spindle threads.

Thanks for your creativity. I'm making one of these.

 

[Jbulach]

Genius. I've been looking for a way to slide the hubs straight on and off my a2 to prevent the inner CTIS seals from getting knarfed, cocked or torn. I have not done any hub/bearing maintenance specifically because of this reason since owing the truck, and I mostly work alone, so not sure if the drum would separate from the hub willingly, and if not, can I myself slide it on and off by myself without dragging it across the spindle and threads. Saw and liked the idea of putting masking tape over the spindle threads.

Thanks for your creativity. I'm making one of these.

Knarfed? I think my phone caught a nasty virus while searching the definition... maybe you could use a mill bastard to execute a quick fix for your “knarfed” seal?

 

[red]

Genius. I've been looking for a way to slide the hubs straight on and off my a2 to prevent the inner CTIS seals from getting knarfed, cocked or torn. I have not done any hub/bearing maintenance specifically because of this reason since owing the truck, and I mostly work alone, so not sure if the drum would separate from the hub willingly, and if not, can I myself slide it on and off by myself without dragging it across the spindle and threads. Saw and liked the idea of putting masking tape over the spindle threads.

Thanks for your creativity. I'm making one of these.

m939a2's have outboard drums, meaning the drum comes off before the hub does.

 

[Jbulach]

m939a2's have outboard drums, meaning the drum comes off before the hub does.

Aren’t we pulling them together/at the same time?

 

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Aren’t we pulling them together/at the same time?

On the m939a2's theres no reason to pull the drum and hub off at the same time. The older model m39's, m809's, m939, m939a1's are all inboard drums where the drum and hub must come off together but on the m939a2's the drum comes off first.

If you really want to handle about 160 pounds of drum/hub together on the m939a2's you can, but it's going to take longer to thread 2 lug nuts back on to secure them together than it does to smack the drum with the hammer and slide 80 pounds of just the drum off. Outboard drums on them is a nice upgrade for ease of service (the CTIS is a pain in the ass). I'm all for work smarter not harder even if it takes a little bit longer.

 

[CMPPhil]

Another but similar approach to drum/hub puller unit

Hi Brian

I really like the eloquent simplicity of your HUB/DRUM puller, using on hand components with minimal fabrication time necessary. Your roll off roll back on approach with the assembly held vertical just has so many advantages.

Over the years I’ve used various methods pulling drums/hum assemblies of my trucks every thing from brute strength approved of just grabbing hold and pulling them off, my days of picking up 100+lbs units is long gone. Draw back damaging the oil seals when reinstalling.

Next approach was hoist bar hung off the shop jib crane better but still requires repositioning the truck to pull the other wheels.



Last time I was planning on doing a brake job on my 3 Ton CMP I wanted to be able to pull all four drum/hub assemblies at the same time. With truck up on stands decided to build something similar, but not having spare wheels made up mounting plate. When I was restoring one of the 3 Tons I had to replace most of the rivets so I had made up a frame drilling unit which had a platform for a drill press that always remained parallel to the floor. The parallel arms are lifted with spreader attachment from the portapower, giving about 2 feet of adjustment.



The platform was 1/2” steel plate and already had a number of tapped holes for mounting the drill press vertically or horizontal. So fabricating the HUB/Wheel plate out of some 1/4 angle plate was easy. First version had the Hub/Wheel plate bolted rigidly to the platform. Worked OK for pulling the assembly but discovered that a little bit of vertical plain adjustment was needed to have the seal and bearing line up perfectly to just slide straight on. This was particularly noticeable when pulling one wheel at a time instead of truck up on jack stands.

As with your approach using discovered that having the right set up to take the muscle work out of pulling and replacement the job went a lot faster. Time to jack up corner of truck, remove wheel, pull hub/drum and have it up on the bench to clean and inspect down to about 20 minutes.


Here is what the Parallel Drill unit looks line in it’s drilling configuration uses an inexpensive bench drill press (under $60) with a few modifications to the drill press it can be mounted to drill up or down and horizontal. I had to replace the inner frame rails of one of my 3 tons 60 years of rust. So I knocked out all the rivets had a metal fabrication shop bend up some new 1/4 plate frame rails. The issue was to line bore all the rivet holes so they could be replaced with drive fit grade 8 bolts. This drill unit was the solution.


Again thanks for you sharing your eloquently simple approach which I’m sure took a small fraction the time to fabricate than mine. But either approach after you’ve done 8 or 10 hub/drum pulls we both have saved the time to fabricate the tool. And in my case sure saves a sore back.

Cheers Phil