One of the things that is keeping me from getting started with anything on the 51 Chevy is the simple fact that the wheels were frozen up all the way around. Obviously, being a vehicle over 70 years old, its expected, even though I'm sure this truck has been running more recently than 1951. Anyway, the tires on all four wheels are flat and despite one of the rims being off of the Chevy LUV. The ones that were on the 51 Chevy were pretty much destroyed so there was no possibility of saving them. Despite the wheels and rims they still need to be broken free. Since the truck is four wheel drum brake equipped, I'll have the sheer pleasure of beating the shit out of drums trying to free them up. Of course this will also involve liberal use of WD40 as well. Luckily the lug nuts on these wheels didn't give me any issue. The exception was the left rear rim, a couple of the lugs were rusted away enough that they were no longer 3/4" but one lug was able to have an 18mm socket hammered on and the other took a 16 mm. After hammering the sockets to the lugs, the impact wrench was able to quickly back the lugs off. With the rim off, the fun began. I started working my way around the drum with the baby sledgehammer as well as a large flathead screwdriver, which was used to pry on the drum to help back it off the axle. After a while I had the drum backed off enough that I was able to get the crowbar in to put more leverage on the drum. After more beating I finally got the drum off. Now the thing I determined was that I would have to remove the old brake shoe and associated hardware so when I put the tire on without the drum in the case of the rear brakes, there will be nothing to possibly freeze up again in the future. In the case of this wheel, the spring to the shoes was broken so the top portion came loose, there was just a matter of removing the retaining clip holding the peg that held the bottom of the shoes in place. With the hardware removed I was able to put the replacement rim/tire on the hub. We managed to get a trio of 16" Toyota truck rims with tires on them from a friend of ours who didn't need them. The 6 lug rims are the same bolt pattern for the Toyota truck as they are for the Chevy truck. I put the wheel on and moved on to the right side, repeating the same fun on that side before being able to get the wheel on. Moving on to the front, I had to place my jacks since I had to drag out another one, in certain spots to facilitate jacking up the vehicle high enough to allow me to be able to get the wheels on when I go the brake hardware off. The steering mechanisms along with the sway bar would all interfere, along with the soft ground, made soft by the rains that passed through. I had to jack the truck in two different spots then put a ramp under the frame behind the steering mechanism to add some extra support. As with the other rims, the lugs didn't give me much grief to come off. Unlike the rear brake drums, the left front wheel was rather stubborn. I had to beat the shit out of the rotor, even after removing the wheel bearings I still had to beat on the thing to finally work the thing free from the spindle. As before, I wanted to remove the brake hardware so in the case of the front drums, when I put the drum back on, there won't be anything to resist or possibly bind up again in the future. I had to pry on the tops of the brake shoes to get them free from the wheel cylinder and get the spring off then remove the clip that held the peg in place at the bottom of the shoes. Once that was done the two brake shoes came off. I was able to re-install the drums, but then I ran into another serious problem. The problem that I had was when I tried to put the third Toyota rim on the front. The hub offset was different on the Toyota rim compared to the stock old Chevy rim. The distance from the back of the rim mount surface to the bead of the rim on the stock rims was 3.75", the Toyota was 5" or so. This large distance caused the inner bead of the rim to extend too far in and make contact with the steering tie rod end and knuckle on the spindle, not allowing the rim to sit flush on the brake drum. Because of this, the Toyota rim couldn't be used, I'd have to try and get a tire on the old rim after removing the shitty tire and reuse that old rim. Of course the same will apply to the right side as well. At least with the car ramp under the frame I could recover my jacks until I can put the new tires on. Now it was time to get the right side taken care of. I guess circumstances finally worked in my favor after all the headache I went through with the other three wheels and the fact that I couldn't put the one rim/tire on the front because it did not take long at all nor did it take any effort to remove this drum. I did spray things down but this wheel seemed to have already been pretty free in that after removing the outer wheel bearing and doing a couple light taps the drum slid right off like it was a recently used assembly that was still loose. With that I went ahead and removed the internal hardware and put the drum and its wheel bearings back on. I put the other metal car ramp I had on this side to hold the truck up as well since I can't put any fresh wheels on the front on either side. With that all four wheels are freed up and able to rotate. Once I get a pair of rims/tires on the front, I'll be able to move the old Chevy into the compound and park it in a suitable spot so I can begin work on it in the future. Just like with any other project around here, I am getting tired of seeing the truck just sitting there and not taking even a brief spell to do a little something on the thing. This little job is a little something towards getting the project done, allowing myself to be able to move the vehicle where I need it to be so I can more easily work on it, even if that involves just tearing it down like I did the 65 Mustang. There will be more to come.
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