Classic/Antique Car Repair: Removing rear hub, hub puller, wheel hub

Question
Hello Dick, I have a 1956 Chrysler NY St Regis.
I am having trouble trying to remove the driver side rear wheel hub.  The wheel cylinder is leaking and needs to be replaced.  I rented a "Wheel Hub Puller" and tried everything I could to pull the darn thing off. I backed off the shoes so they are not rubbung the wheel turns freely but it just won't budge I tried heat also.
The former owner must have had trouble removing it because I found a tiny screw in the end of the fluid line going into the back of the hub.
Do you have any idea what could be the problem?
Also there is a spring that goes around the outside of the wheel hub, what is it for?
Thank you,
Busch

Answer
This is a common complaint with cars that use the tapered hub system - which includes all Chryslers up to 1965.

The way to get it off is to do just exactly what you did, but make sure you have a really sturdy hub puller - the 3 leg type with dogbone shaped knocker handle, one that bolts on using the wheel lugbolts.

Lubricate the threads in the center of the puller and the tip of the puller center bolt where it pushes on the end of the axle.  Leave the nut on the end of the axle, reversed so the castellated end points in, and back it out to where the puller center bolt contacts the nut and axle end simultaneously, so that you don't mess up the axle threads, and pound on that puller with a 3# hammer until the neighbors complain, and leave it sit overnight with the extreme pressure on it.  Maybe it will pop loose during the night as the temperature changes - they often do.  If not, pound it on tighter in the morning, and just keep it up, it will come off - I promise!  As a last resort, get a torch and heat JUST THE DRUM HUB, quickly so that it expands and the axle doesn't get too hot.  Be sure not to heat the drum as you can seriously warp it that way.  Keep going through heat and cool cycles, tightening the puller each time you think of it, and it will pop off with a loud bang sooner or later.

If you have a choice, try to get a Snap-On brand puller -they are the strongest, and with my older Packards which use the same system, I could never get them off until I bit the bullet and got a Snap-On puller.  But they are VERY expensive!

Sorry, you're going down the same road all us old car nuts have traveled - it's all part of the fun of old cars, as I tell my wife!

Dick