62 catalina front hub interchange
 

Is there any info which front brake hubs interchange on a 62 catalina... do later years fit regarding the hub size. And bearings .i know the shoes and drums are wider maybe the could be modified ....

The front hubs and drums were considered an assembly, and should be interchangeable from 1962-1964. 1961 is similar, but used ball bearings instead of roller bearings.

Hub
 

The big question..if the hub only ist the same from 62 to 68.. can get a 65 front drum with hub want to remove this 65 hub from the drum ..and install it on my 62 catalina..an buy new available 62 drum.. should this work?

Do you think the hub it self is the same from 62 to 68 ..?

It may be, I don't know. I don't know anyone who's taken the drum and hub apart. The bearings are the same. However, 62-64 hub and drum assemblies shouldn't be that hard to find.

We had a 61 Catalina dirt car that because the RF is always loaded excessively, would take out the ball bearings regularly. The fix was to use the later tapered bearings (62 and later) on the same 61 spindle.

I can't remember for sure (1971, 50 years ago) if we used the same hub, and just swapped to the later bearings/races, or we got the whole hub and bearing assembly when we swapped it. I do recall we didn't have to change the spindle.

Don't quote me on this, but I believe you can use the same hub (61) with later (62) tapered bearings and races. If you take the 61 bearings/races when you pick up the new bearings, you should be able to do a side by side comparison before you purchase the new tapered bearings/races, and seals.

We had a wrecking yard as a sponsor, so we may have just unbolted one (hub assembly) from a later car and used the whole thing, after 50 years I just can't remember all the minute details of the swap. Just remember that we used the same spindle.

Sorry I can't be of more help with all the details, but I know it wasn't anything involved to do the swap to the tapered bearings, and it did solve the ruined wheel bearings from that point on.

That is true. I'm running 1962 8 lug drums and hubs with roller bearings on my car, and they fit right on.

The 1961 bearings have a different outside diameter than the roller bearings on 1962 and later cars, so the holes in the 1961 hubs are larger, but the inside diameter of either bearing is the same so the spindles are the same.

As a result you could use 1961 hubs and drums on a 1962-1964 car, but you'd have to also use the matching 1961 ball bearings.

Hub
 

Thanks for response .in my case a need info if a 65 hub is the same as 62....

My Hollander book goes up to '66. It says '62-'64 Pontiac interchange and that is it. DK how accurate it is.

1966 Parts book
Steering Knuckle
59-63 Ex Pol 532288 R & L no difference
64 Ex Pol 32288 R & L no difference (Yes the same number as 59-63)
65-66 9778111

Hub and Drum
61 536941 RH 536942 LH steel (Maybe the only difference is R or L thread on studs - not sure when they changed that)
62-63 541944 RH 541945 LH steel
64 not listed
65-66 9778470 steel

My 62 Cat wagon had left hand thread on the left of the car. It was weird. The hub was shot and I bought a complete set off of here years ago and just used the RH thread on both sides of the car and replaced all of the rear studs.

Took me a minute to get lugs off.

The parts books list a hub and drum assembly. The question is whether the hub without a drum will interchange. That can probably only be confirmed by someone who's actually done it, or by making close measurements of the two.

Hub
 

...stuart thanks thats i want to know...the hub interchange.. between the years

I used 1965 front brake drums and hubs on my 1963 Bonneville by machining off 1/2 inch from the outside edge of the drum so that I could use a great set of 8 lug drums on my car. The hubs themselves fit right on the 1963.

Hub
 

Goat racer thanks for your input..i was hoping that some one did it like you...

Hub
 

Goat racer you said you removed 1/2" from the backside off the 65 drum so you could also use 65 8lug drums on the early 62-63 cars too a good option for using later 8 lugs....since i dont have the a lug drum on hand ..is the 1/2 " backcut complete on wider brake lining too or more on the aluminum material which maybe stucks out further...

The 1965 has 1/2 inch wider lining than the 1963. If you don't remove the material the drum will hit the backing plate. It was awhile ago but if I remember correctly I removed both the aluminum and part of the steel liner. It would not be hard to tell just by looking and measuring the depth. I was a mechanic at the time (now retired) and removed the material by putting the drum on the shop's brake lathe and slowly removed the excess drum. Anyone who has a real machine shop could do it much easier.