front hub on a 69

[tynall44]

does the drum come off the hub or is it all made together and if so how do ya get em apart,,,

[jimmy828]

They can be a PITA to get off. The drum is suppose to come separate from the hub, The drums on mine were like frozen onto the brakes shoes. I bet i spent 2 hours trying to get them off. I finally decided to just remove hub with the brake /drum still attached. Since i was switching to disc setup i did not worry about separating the 2

[hedz]

soak the star that is supposed to be adjusted inside the drum with some pbr if it's frozen. after you've given it ample time to soak to free it up, roll the bottom of the star towards the bottom of the drum brake to loosen the drum. if this doesn't work but the star is moving and disengaging the brake, then your drum is frozen on the hub. start hammering the crap out of the drum with a huge hammer, like a mini sledge. if this doesn't get it loose after some serious hammering than you have a drum-fused-to-the-hub-boogerproblem.

get a huge gear puller and set her on the drum and while pulling the mess out of the drum continue to give the drum wacks with a hammer. you also may need a buddy to torch the drum while you are hammering and torquing the gear puller.

i had to do this on two of mine. two of my original drums exploded into tons of pieces. wear safety goggles!! i had to heat them with a torch, hit them with a hammer multiple times, and use the gear puller simultaneously. i was able to keep the hubs intact.

[radioactivelarry]

There is a company called Scarebird that makes a disc conversion kit that uses the original hubs and bearings for your truck. Uses late model GM calipers and 95 to 99 Dodge truck rotors as they have the same lug pattern of 5.5 inches.
Cool kit less than 200 bucks: https://scarebird.com/index.php?route=p ... uct_id=149
I'm going this route soon as I will need to do the brakes soon and if you need new drums how much are they.
To me this seems to be a good way to go as you don't have to change spindles or even mess with the front end.
They also make conversion kits for other vehicles.