One of the wheel studs for my front drums has snapped off and another one has stripped threads, making this thing unsafe to even try to drive.

I plan on swapping to discs anyways but was wondering what's involved in replacing wheel studs?

Not much to it - they're held in by knurling on the shaft where it goes through the hole in the drum. Just knock out the old one (from outside to inside) and pop in a new one. A few whacks with your favorite hammer from behind should set the new one or you can just put on a lug nut and tighten it down drawing the stud into place.

I had a couple of broken studs on the my drum brakes on the front as well. The part #'s for replacements were too loose. The guy that helped me out, cross referenced to some early Corvette studs that were exactly the same, except the knurled part was about .010" bigger, and they were a bit of a tight squeeze, but worked OK. For my peace of mind, I replaced all of the front studs. I think I spent $15.00 for all. Good luck, Daren

My favorite method for setting the new ones was to put a stack of washers on the stud, and a lug nut (cone side out/backwards), and hit it with the impact. Pulls 'em in nice & square.

tip: Be sure to have full thread engagement (stud sticking out of nut) before putting the whammy to it.

I always just knock the old ones out and knock the new ones back in.

The last time I bought lug studs the ones O'Rreilly's Auto Parts book said were the correct ones were not.
I had to go to Carquest to get the right studs.