it's that time of century again.
i'm trying to change my rear drum brakes and i cant seem to get the drum off. i have a haynes book and it says 1st to spray penetrating oil around the hub and if that doesn't help, then i'm supposed to take a hammer and chizzle and knock in the "lanced cutout" in the backing plate and take some leaver off???

can someone tell me WTF this book is talking about??

 

sounds like you might be in over your head... but what you want to do is beat on the drum with a hammer from the top, bottom, left, or right side (on the round sides, not the flat side) while you rotate the drum (so that you aren't beating on it in 1 spot). Some people will say this warps the drums blah blah, but if your drum is rusted onto the hub, you're gonna have to loosen it up somehow. Make sure there's no screws on the flat side holding it on. if it keeps on sticking, use some penetrating oil, and maybe even a torch if necessary. once you get it off, do yourself a favor and sand down all the rust where the hub and drum touch so that they don't sieze together again so easily. good luck

 

The lever you need to back off would be the self-adjuster inside the drum. This connects to a ratchet wheel which makes sure the shoes stay close to the drum surface as they wear. Sometimes, because the metal drum wears slightly too, a lip can occur which stops the drum sliding over the shoes hence the need to back off the adjuster. However, there should be some movement of the drum before the shoes jam against this lip, unless you can feel the shoes dragging on the drum as you turn it.
There might be a rubber bung in the back plate if the drums have been adjusted before which will save you the trouble of hammer and chisel

I'm in the process of replacing my back brakes after a wheel cylinder let go last week. I had to give the drum a few hard taps with a hammer to get it to move...

Mark.

 

alright, thanks...i'll try that and see where i get.