This may sound strange, but please stick with it. Awhile back, my rear wheel and drum "fell off" my 91 Loyale while I was driving home from NY on the Interstate. This destroyed the backer plate and exploded the wheel cylinder but no other real damage. Didn't see where the wheel ended up, just greatful I was able to control the car and pull over. My dad drove up and we trailered the car home. I ended up finding a backer plate and hub off an old BRAT (I think, or could have been a wagon) my stepdad used to have, put it on and found a tire and life was good. I wanted to eventually replace the plate to incorporate the automatic adjuster piece like it originally had and finally sourced one last summer but never got around to switching it over.
Last week the timing belt broke on me and this past weekend I had the privilage of changing belts for the first time. Piece of cake with Miles Fox's tutiorial on Youtube! Fired right up! Went to take it for a test drive around the block and had no brakes unless I pumped them a few times. After further inspection I found the wheel cylinder decided to blow out on the "parted together" side so I decided to replace the backer plate and cylinder today. Everything went well exept the hub is rubbing on the backer plate making a hell of a noise while you're driving. I took it all apart and verified what the noise was, tried "adjusting" the backer plate with a hammer and screwdriver but can not get it "aligned" right. If I pull out the hub just a little on the axle, the noise vanishes. My question is, do hubs wear out? Would replacing the hub solve my problem? is there a differance between the length of the drum centers on 2WD and 4WD and maybe I have a 2WD hub on a 4WD backer plate or vice versa? I'm a little bit stumped on this one. but would like to get this fixed as I need this for my DD. And like many, money is tight right now so just buying parts is not in the cards right now.. ($50 for a new 4WD hub is expensive for me right now but could manage if concensus is that's my problem).