Chevelle Hubs on a 55 Chevy

[scorpion1110]

Evening Guys:

So here is today's question :)

Yesterday I had the pleasure of driving a broken wheel stud out of a stock 55 chevy drum brake hub. I started looking at the hub after the stud finally gave up the ghost. I took a look at the ball bearings and was pretty sure there was an upgrade kit, so I checked Danchuk and Ebay. I found hub kits with Timken bearings ranging from $140 to $200+.

So I was talking to a 55 Chevy Drag Racer friend, and he told me 61-66 GM Drum brake hubs fit the stock 55 spindles. This lets you dump the ball bearings for the better roller bearings. There should be a million of these hubs lying around.

The question is, has anyone every heard of the swap?

Thanks, S

[markm]

61-66 hubs were swapped to these cars for a wheel bearing upgrade allowing retention of stock drum brakes,. 69-72 Chevelle rotors are used for disk conversions. Both utilize stock spindles.

[Rick_L]

You need 61-68 full size Chevy hubs for the conversion, brake drums fit. Chevelle hubs for drum brakes will bolt up but the offset is wrong for the brake drum.

[BamaNomad]

Rick, Can you explain this part of your post .. "Chevelle hubs for drum brakes will bolt up but the offset is wrong for the brake drum."

Are you saying that '68-72 Chevelle drum brake hubs can be used on the '55-57 spindle?? but the wheel offset will be *wrong* ??? please clarify.. your answer may help me out with a problem I have.. :)

[Rick_L]

They will fit the spindles, but the location of the wheel mounting/brake drum flange is too far outboard to let the brake drums align with the brake shoes. The 61-68 full size hubs have the correct location to align the brake drum to the other brake parts.

[BamaNomad]

Now I've got ya.. :) Thanks...

[KNUB1945]

I did this swap on my 55 20 years ago using 64 hubs