I'm trying to remove the rear drums on my son's recently acquired '62 Chevy pickup. The front brakes check out fine, but I can't get either rear drum off. It's been 30 years since I've done a brake job, but shouldn't the drum slide off after the wheel is removed? These both feel like something is holding them in place with very minimal movement. Maybe 1/8"....

Could the brake shoes be hanging up on a lip at the edge of the drum? That's kind of what it feels like, but we've been adjusting and adjusting and we can't get either the left or the right side to come off. Am I overlooking something obvious?

Thanks.

If your shure you have adjusted everything out of the way.And the drum turns freely apply a small amount of heat to flat face of drum.I have done this many times and they slide right off.I use a rosebud but a propane torch might work.Hope this helps.

Had the same problem ith the truck I own,I had to use a puller to remove the drum,it's probably seized up on the axle flange,if you do get this off,use anti-seize,makes the next removing easier. Hope this helps......

I have had to cut the heads off the brake shoe retainers. They look like a nail. Just cut the heads off. Napa has them new.

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Thanks everyone! All three ideas sound helpful. We'll try one or more of them tomorrow. The help is greatly appreciated.

I can see this truck is gonna be more of a challenge than I expected!

Heres another one. Take both the rear wheels off, then put a couple lugnuts back on loosely. Lower the truck back onto the ground, then roll it back & foreward a little bit. Jack it back up & I bet they come off!

Take a good size hammer and hit the drum a couple of times on the outward most corners (at an angle right on the corner so you don't bend the drums), usually after a couple of good solid hits the shoes will relax and let go of the drums.

The drums have a ridge around them due to the brakes wearing down into the drum plus rust buildup making a thicker ridge. Look at the back of the plate and cut the pins if you can. If you cannot, pry the drums off by sticking a prybar on both sides. It will take some work to get them off but don't worry about tearing up any of the brake components. Replacement parts are abundent and should be replaced with all new parts anyhow. The only thing I am not sure about are replacement drums from places like Advanced Auto, AutoZone, etc, but places like Harmons, Sinclairs, etc do sell them. I can check some of my catalogs if you would like before you remove yours. When worse comes to worse a cutting torch will work wonders on stubborn parts but I would not recommend that method until the new parts are at your fingertips.

Kevin

I have seen lugnuts that were put on so tight that they bored the hole out on the rim and pinched the drum around the studs (some people have no business even touching an impact wrench ) also I've seen too long of a shank on mag wheel lugnuts do the same thing. Rims that have been off and on a million times will also allow the nuts to pinch the drum around the studs too.

hitting the drums with a hammer works.. also hit the axel in the center of the drum... sometimes this jars it loose

oh yeah 2X4 you must be a redneck or a guy my age who doesn't know what the hell he is doing... No offence but you DO NOT LOWER A VEHICAL ON TO THE DRUMS UNLESS YOU ARE NEVER PLANNING ON USING THOSE DRUMS AGAIN...

[ December 24, 2002: Message edited by: stonedchihuahua ]</p>

[quote]Originally posted by Kevin45:
<strong>I can check some of my catalogs if you would like before you remove yours.

Kevin</strong><hr></blockquote>

Thanks Kevin!

We got new drums, but I forgot it's Christmas Eve....

We'll hafta work on it Thursday.

Merry Christmas.

[quote]oh yeah 2X4 you must be a redneck or a guy my age who doesn't know what the hell he is doing... No offence but you DO NOT LOWER A VEHICAL ON TO THE DRUMS UNLESS YOU ARE NEVER PLANNING ON USING THOSE DRUMS AGAIN...<hr></blockquote>

Hey stoned puppy, I hate to be the one to tell you but I'm 37 and have worked for GM, Toyota, private garages, and Ford for the last 6 years. One of the best tricks we had going for breaking loose a rim frozen on a hub is to loosen the lug nuts, drop the car down, then rock her till the rim breaks loose. And you don't even want to know how many young inexperienced idiots I've seen do a tire rotation and forget to tighten one of the wheels. They figure it out when they go to pull out of the shop and feel the car shaking. The fix? Pull it back in, jack it up, and tighten down the lugnuts. And yes the drums or rotors are just fine.
This method is intended for rims that are frozen to the hub, not just hung up on the brake hardware. If you don't know the difference between the two you probably shouldn't be doing this trick.

[ December 24, 2002: Message edited by: dmorris1200 ]</p>

Thanks dmorris1200, you said what I was going to say

Hitting the drums with sledgehammers can loosen the weights on a drum or fracture it. Not getting into the damage that a weight can cause flying off at 70mph, it will cause a vibration youll be looking for forever.

Personal attacks arent cool and not good for a great board such as this, so I wont waste anyones time with a reply <img src="graemlins/nono.gif" border="0" alt="[nono]" />

I must actually correct myself. I just re-read the posts and realized I misinterpreted when I first read them. I didn't realize you wrote to lower the vehicle on the drums, or did you? Sometimes words can be misread. I have lowered vehicles with lugnuts loosened but with tires still on, in order to break loose a rim frozen to the drum/hub. I have never lowered a vehicle onto the ground on its drums, this is completely different and not at all the same as just having a rim loose on a moving vehicle as I had described in my first post. I have never seen a car lowered on its drums so I can not comment either way on it, but I do apologize for mis-reading the earlier posts. My bad!

By the way if you were describing actually lowering the vehicle on the drums have you actually done this successfully and if so how many times? Now I'm curious since I have never seen that done yet.