Kenneth,

Yes, your explanation is very clear and easy to understand! 🙂

The car, being in Illinois with snow and salt does experience extended periods of idle, generally the longest being 30 days.
It gets fairly regular use, thanks to a good heater, but when I pull the hub I'll look for evidence of corrosion.

Though the hub mounting face is pretty true, the hub itself shows a lot of movement. Would you consider what you see in the video to be enough to cause a discernible wobble?

Thanks for the help and advice!

Rob

[quote="Rob Hesselmann " post=19490]Kenneth,

"Though the hub mounting face is pretty true, the hub itself shows a lot of movement. Would you consider what you see in the video to be enough to cause a discernible wobble?"

Rob are you referring to the drum itself wobbling? The drum and hub are two separate parts in actuality, but the drum is held to the hub with 5 big rivets. The flange face you mention is the visible part of the hub in the center hole of the drum. The hub flange has the 5 threaded holes for the wheel bolts. The drum center is pressed steel that is crimped onto the cast iron drum ring. The thinner pressed steel center of the drum can be bent or warped, and the outer perimeter of the hub flange where the wheel bolts thread in can be warped by improper use of a puller as previously mentioned. If there is perceptible run-out at the outer diameter of the drum, this run-out will be magnified by the larger diameter of the wheel and tire, do to the longer radius of the drum and tire diameter (5.5" at drum versus @ 14.5" at outer diameter of tire). So if you see .050" lateral run-out at the drum, then there will be almost 0.130" lateral run-out at the tire tread. It is quite conceivable the run-out at the drum actually increased when the drum got hot from dragging on the brake shoes, exacerbating the run-out to even more. This might be why it seemed worse when you looked at it after that drive where it registered 350F with the infrared thermometer.

Kenneth,

Yes.
Thank you for furthering my education 🙂
Looks like I'm in the market for a hub/drum combination that is more true than the one I have.
Glad to learn that the wobble isn't something in the rear end, and that the cure is pretty simple.
I've backed the brake off a bit until I acquire a new hub/drum.
I appreciate all the time you've spent to explain it in terms that are easy to comprehend!
Rob

Good news!

I did a hundred mile run this morning after backing off the brake, and for the first time the car was actually a joy to drive.
The steering still isn't perfect, but I wasn't chasing it back and forth all the time, and for a few periods on nice roads I was able to enjoy the ride without concentrating on the steering wheel 🙂

Rob

That's great, Rob. I'm glad to hear that and glad you are still enjoying your Hudson.

Russ,

I'm not giving up!

In the year and ten months that I've owned it, I've put 6 thousand miles on it trying to work out the bugs.
Although there has been a lot of frustration over deferred maintenance and things previous owners did or didn't do, I've enjoyed every mile.
Never before owned such a smooth driving dependable "old car".
I replaced the wobbly hub/drum last weekend, and things smoothed out that much more.
I'm almost there. If the Colorado meet was coming up this summer, I would jump in and go, there has been that much change in the steering!

Rob

Hi Rob, I wish we could have the Colorado Springs meet back again, but not possible for a while. So we will be seeing you in San Diego right? Just do it!!

Bill,

If I could make a wish that would come true my wife and I would be spending 30 days touring on the way to and from this years meet...
However, my new job requires 12-14 hour days 6 days a week with a couple hours on Sunday, and only a few days vacation per year. I am 4 years from retirement...and well...I just have to wait...:(

Rob

All of that stuff makes such a difference. I got real lucky with the convertible and every single brake component (except the brake pedal itself), every bearing component front and rear and every part for the rear end was all NOS (or a new part). We turned every drum and three of them we only took off .002" and one had to have .004" on the rear, so we took that much off of both of them. .005" is the thickness of a brown human hair, so it tells you how nice the parts were. I can spin the front tires by hand and they'll spin for 5 or 6 minutes, there's so little drag.

All of it adds up to one of the top 5 smoothest riding and running cars I've ever driven, and that's saying something. The quality of engineering that Hudson did never ceases to amaze me.

Your persistence and dedication is admirable. I know you've been around the bend a few times with your car, but the results speak for themselves.