I finally got everything in to do my brake overhaul.  So far I have the rear finished might need to do some shoe adjustment.  But in doing the front I started on the driver side and after pulling the hub and drum assembly off on my '56 I decided to clean up the bearings and repack them.  While I was cleaning out the old grease using my finger I noticed the rear bearing race was actually spinning as I was wiping the grease out.  I tried to pull it out by hand and I couldn't.

So since I never ran into something like this before I wanted to ask could buying new bearing/race correct this issue, I don't know how long it was drove with the race spinning and I don't know what caused it.  Or should I just buy a new drum/hub assembly.

I hate to buy a new bearing and race and it does the same thing but I also hate to spend $100 for a new drum/hub assembly when a bearing and race would fix this issue.

If someone can let me know in a timely manner that would be great as I have to order some replacement parts as well as some shoes as I didn't know if it needed them or not and it does on the front.

1956 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan - 292 Y8 - Ford-O-Matic - 155,000 mi

Sounds like the race has been spinning for a long enough period of time to wear the section of the hub that the race is pressed into.

That's why you cant pull it out.
IF you could get it out then if there is not too much slop you could "stake" the race by punching the hub area.
I have a feeling its too worn to stake. Consider replacing the assembly.
Oldmics

I am sure I could hammer it out, I was just using finger pressure to try to remove it just to see if the race was just out of shape.  But now I get to have a fun time trying to find a new hub and drum cause for '56 year model the hub is staked to the drum so it was a single assembly.  Macs sells just the drum but I haven't found a hub on their website might need to check elsewhere or just take a chance on installing a new race.  Problem is it would be hard to tell if it started spinning again in a year or so.

1956 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan - 292 Y8 - Ford-O-Matic - 155,000 mi

Had a situation similar to what you've described.  No replacement hub was available in a timely manner.  Movement of the race in the hub had to be prevented to permit putting the vehicle back in service.  In addition to what Oldmics suggested, I used a center punch to put a series of punch marks around the perimeter of the inside of the hub where the bearing race was to seat.  The punch marks raised the metal surrounding the punched indentations.  The replacement bearing race fit securely into the housing and rotation of the race was prevented.

Hope this helps.     


NoShortcuts
a.k.a. Charlie Brown
near Syracuse, New York

That is what I am going to attempt to do.  I checked all my sources and no one had a hub assembly.  Not Macs, not Dennis, not Concours, not Larrys Tbirds, not even Rock Auto.

I did get a set of Bendix relined front brake shoes for $28.95 including s/h from Rock Auto with no core charge.  Macs wanted $80 for theirs including a $40 core charge.

But what I will have to sleep on is I was thinking of trying a thin layer of some kind of adhesive and stake it so they work together.  But I have to wait and see as I might luck out and the new race might fit tight and not spin.


1956 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan - 292 Y8 - Ford-O-Matic - 155,000 mi

Punch pricks, knurling and the like are, at best a temporary repair. The bearing cup will spin again after a short period of time. If you have a decent electric motor repair shop nearby, call and ask if they can metal spray and mazchine the hub or try finding a good usedone.

Possibly a good time to consider changing to disc brakes? That would give you new hubs. and much better brakes.

My vote goes for another hub assembly.  While I haven’t tried to get a new one lately, if that fails then there are plenty of used ones available.  You’ll simply need to advertise your needs on the various forums (this one included) as to exactly what you need.  While there are some machining options that will fix what you have, the cost of doing so will make it 'cost prohibitive' if you are not in a position to do it yourself.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

The current line I am following is I am cross referencing to see if the F100 trucks of the same year had the same brake hub assemblies.  I found a guy selling two used drums for a passenger car on Ebay but after shipping the price is right at $200.  I cant justify $200 for two used parts that is probably too thin to even turn to true them up.

If the F100 trucks of '56 used basically the same hubs and drums as the passenger cars then I think I can locate a hub for a truck way easier as they weren't staked to the drum like the passenger cars were.

As far as converting to disc brakes no.  That is out of the question as I just bought $250 worth of factory brake parts and installed them already including the original style master cylinder.  I am not going to throw money away like that and then spend another $700 to get everything needed to convert to disc brakes on a car I never planned on doing that to in the first place.

1956 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan - 292 Y8 - Ford-O-Matic - 155,000 mi

Rusty  I have some used hubs that came from a 56 Ford I parted out,i will take a look at them tomorrow to check there condition, if you think you might be interested in a used one  Carl